Lieutenant / Captain O'Kell RAMC

[RegHannay]

I have looked but not found. Lt or Captain O'Kell RAMC, medical officer with the Sherwood Foresters. On Monday 3rd July 1916 O'kell ran into "no mans land" where the trenches were separated by six to seven hundred yards to assist two RFC men brought down by anti aircraft fire.

The diary reads.

 

"Well it fell between the lines,between "no mans land" where 600 or 700 yards separated the trenches. O'Kell the MO to the Sherwood Foresters, although comparatively elderly immediately ran out - a very plucky act! The two men were dead but they got them in without themselves being hit. Later the bodies were brought to the ADS where Porter and I collected all their belongings."

 

I have not been able to find info on O'Kell, and was hoping someone on the forum can help me find if he was recognised for his brave act, I believe he survived the war.

Dave

 

 

[DavidOwen]

There appears to be two options a Lieutenant Cyril OKell RAMC listed in the Isle of Man ww1 Roll of Honour according to FMP https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=GBM%2FIOM-ROH-1%2F1409 and a Lieutenant / Captain Thomas Fryer OKell

 

Cyril doesn't appear to be on CWGC so perhaps that is a memorial to those who served.

 

Interestingly hisMIC appears to be under Charles Cyril OKell of 100th Field Ambulance (Images courtesy Ancestry free access)

 

 

 

No trace of a service file at TNA so far but from a medical record he was born 1890 and admitted with synovitis on 3rd August 1916 to QA Hospital Millbank FMP link

 

Thomas Fryer's MIC below

 

 

 

 

 

No service file found at TNA either

 

Given Charles Cyril was only 26 in 1916 and your war diary entry states the man in question was "elderly" Thomas Fryer might be the better one to concentrate on in the first instance?

 

Good luck with the research

 

David

[HERITAGE PLUS]

Thomas Fryer Okell died at the lodge in 1933 aged 57. (1876-1933)

 

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/33976/page/5916/data.pdf

 

Charles Cyril O'kell was awarded the DSO.

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2348971/pdf/brmedj07060-0028.pdf

 

Dave

 

[RegHannay]

Thank you both for your help, perhaps my O'Kell had a very hard paper round and just looked old!! Be interesting to see what Cyril was decorated for. 

 

The diary author (my grandfather) was 37 at the time so you could say "no spring chicken" himself, but then I don't think he saw himself that way.

 

Only two candidates for the pilot and observer I can find to suit the date are 2nd Lt Stoddart, Ralph Cyril. Age 21. (pilot) and 2nd Lt Quinlan, John Francis Pembroke Boxwell. (observer)

No4 Sqdn, (BE2c) both died that day in combat over Miraumont-Grandcourt area ? I can place my grandfather on 1st/2nd July at A.D.S Marrais so the crash would have been somewhere close by. It would be good to confirm it was them.

Thanks for your assistance.

Dave

 

[HarryBrook]

Charles Cyril O'Kell was decorated with the M.C. but not for the action in post #1. Announced in the London Gazette of 24 June 1916 https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/29637/supplement/6306 The citation was published in the edition dated 27 July 1916 https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/29684/supplement/7433 The annotated pre-publication gazettes give the place and date of action for this as "Cabaret Rouge to Zouave Valley 24.5. 16."

[RegHannay]

33 minutes ago, HarryBrook said:

Charles Cyril O'Kell was decorated with the M.C. but not for the action in post #1. Announced in the London Gazette of 24 June 1916 https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/29637/supplement/6306 The citation was published in the edition dated 27 July 1916 https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/29684/supplement/7433 The annotated pre-publication gazettes give the place and date of action for this as "Cabaret Rouge to Zouave Valley 24.5. 16."

Thank you HarryBrook