age for service overseas was nineteen, but that didn't discourage him from enlisting.first draft 31.9.2009
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Reginald Victor James Bell was my grandmother's brother, the youngest of thirteen. This made him my great-uncle, and I should have known him but it was not to be. He died in the mud outside Ypres, in Southern Belgium, and hiis story is shared with thousands of young men of his generation.
Reginald was born in early 1897. His father worked as a farm labourer in the countryside to the North of Southampton.
By the outbreak of world War one in June 1914, Reginald was seventeen and
a quarter. The minimum age for volunteering for the army was eighteen and the
minimum
age for service overseas was nineteen, but that didn't discourage him from enlisting.
In May 1915 Reginald found himself in the Ypres Salient - in this context a salient occurs when the attacker's lines push into enemy territory in such a way that they are surrounded on three sides.
The second battle of Ypres took place between April 24th and May 25th 1915, and was notable for the first widescale use of poison gas by the German military. Reginald died in the last major action, on May 24th, just north of the Menin road, when the German army launched a massive gas attack. Total deaths for the month were 71,000 Allied forces and 35,000 German forces. Reginald's name is commemorated on the Menin Gate at Ypres, and also on a memorial in Southampton.
Despite living in the area and cycling past his memorial on the way to school countless times as a child, I knew nothing of his life. I am inclined to be angry that his family didn't do more to honour him, but when I was growing up the memories of the second world War were still raw, so perhaps it is understandable.
Reginald's death is recorded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. I haven't yet found his army records, but his death is commemorated at -
http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=927374
There are many websites covering Ypres and the Menin Gate - here are just a couple -
http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/great-war-on-land/61-battlefields/426-ypres-war.html
http://www.greatwar.co.uk/ypres-salient/memorial-menin-gate.htm