Miss W. BELL - Died of wounds

[Marilyne]

Hi all, 

I'm appealing to the combined knowledge and wisdom of the forum once more... 

I'm re-reading my notes out of Yvonne Mc Ewen's "It's a long way to Tipperary: British and Irish nurses in the Great War" and am stuck on a problem. 

writing about the beginning of the war, the setup of the medical services and the conundrum caused by volunteer nurses flocking to the front, a name appeared on the casualty list of a "Miss W. Bell, an eighteen year old 'nurse' who it was claimed, 'died of her wounds in hospital'". Miss Bell was also said to have had both her legs smashed by a shell. The Nursing Times asked in a later edition "under whose auspices did Miss Bell go to France?" and deemed it scandalous that an untrained girl would be allowed in the front line. 

She was apparently buried by the French. 

Miss Bell is not on the CWGC list of nurses who died on the Western Front. 

Further research on her name and circumstances of her death online have yielded no results and so I turn to the Pals.

Does anybody know who we are talking bout here? Who was that girl and how did she get to France? Did the Nursing Times ever get to the bottom of the story? And if Mrs McEwen reads this, could she maybe tell us more? 

Have a nice day, 

M.

[charlie962]

It was well reported in October 1914 newspapers.

Here's a link to Findmypast but I'll try to post an example.

https://search.findmypast.co.uk/search/british-newspapers

Charlie 

Edit. This was copied in a number of papers.

Edited 22 December , 2022 by charlie962

[charlie962]

Odd that there was no follow up report?

[charlie962]

No 1 Stationary Hospital left Le Mans Oct 1914.

No 5 Stationary Hospital was at Le mans Sept - Dec 1914. 

Etc...

Edited 22 December , 2022 by charlie962

[barratt_sab]

7 minutes ago, charlie962 said:

No 1 Stationary Hospital left Le Mans Oct 1914.

No 5 Stationary Hospital was at Le mans Sept - Dec 1914.

I've had a quick look through the diaries for both - No 1 is hard to read, but lists and numbers individual deaths, and I cannot see her there.  No 5 is easier to read, but less detailed, and I cannot see here there either.

[TEW]

Le Mans was also an advanced base during this period. Offhand I think the Abbeville Base had to upsticks and move around to various locations before returning to Abbeville.

I'll check dates etc. later. I'm referring here to Medical Services.

Could she have been with French or Belgian Red Cross?

TEW

[barratt_sab]

38 minutes ago, charlie962 said:

It was well reported in October 1914 newspapers.

Here's a link to Findmypast but I'll try to post an example.

https://search.findmypast.co.uk/search/british-newspapers

Charlie 

Edit. This was copied in a number of papers.

The Lancashire Evening Post of Saturday 24 October 1914 states that she was buried "yesterday" so Friday 23 Oct 1914.

[barratt_sab]

1 minute ago, barratt_sab said:

The Lancashire Evening Post of Saturday 24 October 1914 states that she was buried "yesterday" so Friday 23 Oct 1914.

and the Trinidad & Tobago Mirro of Wednesday 25 November 1914 has a report from Paris, dated 23 Oct which says "Today the inhabitants of Le Mans..." so looks like 23 Oct 1914 may be accurate as date of burial.

[charlie962]

It is odd though that this single report has no follow-up. All newspapers, even the other side of the world, reported this agency clipping. 

The Mairie at Le Mans may provide guidance for burials?

[TEW]

11 SH left Le Mans 10/10/14.

16/10/14 mentions a French Surgeon at #30 Auxiliary HP.

The Red Cross were running a ward at the railway station (platform 4) for those awaiting evacuation.

#1 SH also seems to be in picture for Oct 14. One entry for 8/10/14.

Difficult to read but 7/10/14 mentions another hospital, perhaps a poor rendition of Veterinary but with fewer letters, Vatery, Valery?

TEW

 

[barratt_sab]

The only female Bell births on FreeBMD with initial W between Mar 1896 and Dec 1897 are all Winifred or similar, searching the BNA for +"Winifred Bell" +Nurse brings up the Aberdeen Press and Journal of Tuesday 27 October 1914 (snip attached, from BNA, so image their copyright):

[Marilyne]

Thanks to all for your help !! 

At least I have a full name now. 

She is most definitely not in the CWGC database, so I suppose she was attached to the Red Cross and buried in a civilian grave. I'll try to contact the authorities in Le Mans. 

M. 

[KizmeRD]

Quite possibly ‘French Flag Nursing Corps’

https://archive.org/details/fordauntlessfran00biny/page/339/mode/1up

MB

Edit: The French Flag Nursing Corp was brought under the auspices of the British Committee of the French Red Cross in March 1917. - French Flag volunteers were supposed to be aged between 28 and 40 years old, with three years’ training. (However, the name W. BELL does appear in the above linked book).

Edited 23 December , 2022 by KizmeRD

[barratt_sab]

12 hours ago, Marilyne said:

Thanks to all for your help !! 

At least I have a full name now. 

She is most definitely not in the CWGC database, so I suppose she was attached to the Red Cross and buried in a civilian grave. I'll try to contact the authorities in Le Mans. 

M. 

I assume from the cutting that she was buried in the British plot in Le Mans West Cemetery.  If this is correct, looking at the burials for Oct 1914, I cannot find any concentration records for any of them (which is to be expected, I guess, as they were away from the front) suggesting the graves are still where they were originally buried in Oct 1914.  The graves for Oct 1914 are numbers 42 to 55 and are all evenly spaced on the ground and close together, so there's no obvious space for an additional grave between the CWGC headstones:

The grave reference numbers are in order of date of death, apart from one, Charles Chell in grave 51, who is listed by the CWGC as having died on 1 Oct 1914, but is between a man who died on 11 Oct and one who died on 15 Oct.  However the war diaries for No1 Stationary Hospital indicate that he died at 4.30am on 13 Oct 1914:

and so the graves against the hedge all appear to be in order of death, without any obvious gaps between grave 53 (died on 19 Oct) and grave 54 (26 Oct), which cover the period when it would appear that she was buried.  This seems to suggest that whilst she might have been buried in the same plot as these men, it doesn't appear that there is an unmarked civilian grave somewhere in the line of CWGC headstones.

This is an older photo of part of the cemetery (from https://www.ww1cemeteries.com/le-mans-west-cemetery.html), before the hedge grew behind the far line of WW1 headstones:

which is interesting, as there's clearly a non-CWGC stone at the end of a line of CWGC stones, but I think this is the gave of Sgt Robert W. Huter, US Army, who died in a jeep accident on 8 Sep 1947.  He had married a French woman from Le Mans but was still serving in the 80th US Infantry Division when he died.  His grave is on the end of CWGC WW2 Row C.

 

 

 

[barratt_sab]

2 minutes ago, barratt_sab said:

I assume from the cutting that she was buried in the British plot in Le Mans West Cemetery.  If this is correct, looking at the burials for Oct 1914, I cannot find any concentration records for any of them (which is to be expected, I guess, as they were away from the front) suggesting the graves are still where they were originally buried in Oct 1914.  The graves for Oct 1914 are numbers 42 to 55 and are all evenly spaced on the ground and close together, so there's no obvious space for an additional grave between the CWGC headstones:

The grave reference numbers are in order of date of death, apart from one, Charles Chell in grave 51, who is listed by the CWGC as having died on 1 Oct 1914, but is between a man who died on 11 Oct and one who died on 15 Oct.  However the war diaries for No1 Stationary Hospital indicate that he died at 4.30am on 13 Oct 1914:

and so the graves against the hedge all appear to be in order of death, without any obvious gaps between grave 53 (died on 19 Oct) and grave 54 (26 Oct), which cover the period when it would appear that she was buried.  This seems to suggest that whilst she might have been buried in the same plot as these men, it doesn't appear that there is an unmarked civilian grave somewhere in the line of CWGC headstones.

This is an older photo of part of the cemetery (from https://www.ww1cemeteries.com/le-mans-west-cemetery.html), before the hedge grew behind the far line of WW1 headstones:

which is interesting, as there's clearly a non-CWGC stone at the end of a line of CWGC stones, but I think this is the gave of Sgt Robert W. Huter, US Army, who died in a jeep accident on 8 Sep 1947.  He had married a French woman from Le Mans but was still serving in the 80th US Infantry Division when he died.  His grave is on the end of CWGC WW2 Row C.

 

 

 

and looking at Charles Chell's entry on the graves registration:

It looks like someone "corrected" the date of death at some point.

[TEW]

I can't help wondering what her status was and if that affects any IWGC burial criteria.

Nurse is a loose term applied during the war, at nineteen I can't see her being qualified as such.

Assuming the reporting is correct she's in the front line under shellfire which I doubt British authorities would sanction for BRC. 

Perhaps her parents were involved and she has a private memorial or an unmarked grave?

Clearly a brave girl to take herself off at that age, she should be remembered and her story told.

TEW

[TEW]

Doesn't add much but she was also reported in the British Journal of Nursing. NB. they don't use the term nurse.

Same edition (1,387. Vol. LIII) also has an article on the French Flag Nursing Corps which says that a three year certificate is required, the age to be 28-40 and admission to the corps was by a selection committee. First two units of FFNC arrived in Rouen 29/10/14 which I'd say pretty much rules her out for FFNC.

Her death must have been a significant event at Le Mans so it does seem odd none of the hospitals mention her.

TEW

[Marilyne]

There are a number of women in France who died as "civilians", or attached to the Belgian or French Red Cross. They were not there undr the auspices of the War Office and therefore lay in civilians graves. On of them is Elizabeth Stevens, who I found back two years ago (and whose contact I am now for her grave) There is one exception in Marseilles, who got a CWGC stone. 

I'll try to contact the authorities in Le Mans after the holidays, who knows what we'll find. 

Happy holidays all !

 

M.

[Jim Strawbridge]

Here's a long shot.

https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/326133/j-f-batteson/#&gid=1&pid=1

An unknown soldier is buried in plot A18 with a burial date of the 21st September 1914.

[KizmeRD]

On 23/12/2022 at 17:05, TEW said:

Her death must have been a significant event at Le Mans so it does seem odd none of the hospitals mention her.

Agree - It seems hardly credible that no substantiating evidence of her death or funeral can be found. Is it just false news?

MB

[charlie962]

33 minutes ago, KizmeRD said:

Is it just false news?

In the line of beastly behaviour by the Germans in 1914? I am surprised that there only appears to be one originating report copied by the world's press.

Let's see if Marilyne turns up anything with Le Mans authorities who should have the detailed burial records for both civil and military.

[michaeldr]

6 hours ago, Jim Strawbridge said:

Here's a long shot.

https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/326133/j-f-batteson/#&gid=1&pid=1

An unknown soldier is buried in plot A18 with a burial date of the 21st September 1914.

Is it significant that 'Unknown British Soldier' was only added later [when] and that originally it was simply stated as "One Unmarked Grave"?

Jim, I think that your long shot should be worth following-up

 

[rolt968]

According to the Sheffield Telegraph (24 October 1914) the original report came from the Paris Exchange. A news agency? It means that the original facts were translated into French and then back into English - quite a lot of scope for errors.

Also, if her grave was not taken on by IWGC/ CWGC there would not have been any objection to repatriation.

RM

[Jim Strawbridge]

A visit to the cemetery by a photographer friend has failed to find her. October 1914 is very early in the war and she may not have been affiliated to any organisation - just travelled to France to try and do some good.  So her grave is either unmarked, her body removed and reinterred elsewhere in France or her relatives repatriated it and had it returned for burial in the UK.  The problem is that we have no notion, as yet, as to her family background or where she was from. The mystery continues.

[Marilyne]

Thanks for the update, Jim. 

I have failed as yet to receive an answer from the graves-authorities in Le Mans. 

the mystery continues ... et je dirais même plus, mon cher Dupont: the mystery remains! 

M.