JOHN HOARE'S FAMILY HISTORY

Reginald Victor James BELL 1897 - 1915 (Hoare family line)
from military records

This page relates mainly to the the events leading up to Victor's death in the second battle of Ypres. There is an overview of his life as a soldier on his main page

first draft updated April 2017 WORK IN PROGRESS

in 2016 I took a short holiday on a guided tour of the WW1 Ypres battlefields organised by Steve and Susan Cocks of guided Battlefield Tours. This page is in no way an advertisement, but I can place on record that it was well organised and informative. In particular, Steve had researched the special interests of our group. He pointed out areas where Victor had fought, and brought with him a copy of the official war diary of Victor's last battle.

I subscribe to the genealogy website Ancestry, and I have now found that the war diary of his unit is there. It has been digitised as one record of nearly 700 pages. The records are handwritten and only referenced by date. They cover different units and sections aren't always in date order; the 19th Hussars war diaries start at page 100 and those relating to Victor's last battle are on pages 116 - 128 of the digital version.

When I was researching I came across a very interesting paperback book about Victor's commanding officer, Captain Henry Evelyn Arthur Platt. The book paints a picture of a privileged young man from a different world to the soldiers he commanded. It uses letters and documents to show his life in great detail. It also lays out a bitter falling out with his superior, which caused him great harm, but in which he appears to be on the side of his soldiers. The book is available cheaply as an ebook but the ordering of the sections works much better in the traditional printed form, which is available from Amazon. A web search will show sites apparently offering bootleg copies of the ebook, but personally I would neither trust them nor approve of them.

Victor enlisted on August 23rd 1914 aged 17. The minimum legal age for enlisting was 18, and 19 for service overseas, but lying was commonplace and the military weren't inclined to turn down volunteers. I haven't been able to access his military records, so I guess they were amongst many destroyed by enemy action in World War Two.

The regiment was split up at the beginning of hostilities and attached to Infantry Divisions as divisional cavalry squadrons. Victor was in the Fourth Division, and probably took part in the battles of Le Cateau, the Marne, the Aisne, and Messine Ridge in 1914.

On 14 April  1915 the regiment was brought together again as part of the newly formed 9th Cavalry Brigade 1st Cavalry division, and immediately involved in the second battle of Ypres.The war diaries describe the events in great detail.

The diaries of the 19th Hussars, 1st Cavalry division start on April 6th 1915. Victor was in 'B' squadron.

April 6th (page 100)
The 19th Hussars were at Monchy-Lagache in Northern France. at 04:30AM orders were received to rendezvous at 09:30  to move a new base, not specified in the diary. It would seem from the diaries that the men were marching, but horses were also employed. That day they covered 28km, passing through Roisel and Epehy to Bantouzelle where they bivouaced overnight.

April 7th
Continued North to  via Cambrai to Brunemont, a distance of 28km, arriving 16:15.

April 8th
Marched via Cantin-Douai-Racquet and Pont a Marcq to Ennevelin, where they billeted, a distance of 38km . The diary notes 'warning order for 9th'

9th April
The brigade, less the 8th Hussars,  moved off at 08:45,heading West via Mouchin then crossing into Belgium to Rumes, about 15km, where they halted and fed. They saddled up and continued the march Northwest via Tournai to Ramecroix, where they bivouaced. Distance for the day about 33km. Ramecroix is about 50km Southeast of Ypres.

The next diary entry is page 101, dated 14th April. This carries a reference to appendix 1 dated 11 April (page 105) which gave a rendezvous at HQ 1st Cavalry Division on April 14th, and an unnumbered appendix, also dated 11 April ( page 104), which gave a new rendezvous at St Sylvestre Capel, France, on April 14th. This involved retracing their route and heading West for 78km. St Sylvestre Capel is 30km Southwest of Ypres.

April 14th (page 101)
The regiment re-assembled under the command of Major G.A. Egerton. Billets had been arranged between St. Sylvestre Capel and Hondeghem

Numbers of the regiment are recorded as -
21 officers
Other ranks 489
Horses 570

the regiment remained in their billets for a week with no activity recorded other than a Regimental Parade for the 1st Cavalry on the 19th.

April 23rd
Appendix 3 (page 106) is a roll of officers

The regiment came together at 9:15AM and at 11:45 proceeded Northeast via Steenvoorde. (page 102) At 5PM they arrived 2km West of Elverdinghe on the Northwest outskirts of Ypres, a total for the day of 25km. A patrol under Captain G. Osborne continued to Brielen, 3km Southeast towards the centre of Ypres.At 7:30PM the Regiment went into billets 2km East of Poperinge (the diary describes the location very precisely). Reconnaisance of the trenches was undertaken. Appendix 4 (page 110) is a sketch map of the area.

April 24th
6AM saddled up and awaiting orders.
10AM proceeded to Woesten, 7km Northwest, arriving there 11AM. 'A' squadron detatched to nearby windmill (the diary describes the location very precisely), the remainder billeted just West of Woesten.

April 25th
 6AM saddled up and awaiting orders.
9AM moved into wood to the immediate left of the river Meerschbeck [not found]. 'C' squadron occupied 3rd line support trenches.

April 26th (page 103)
9AM 'C' squadron detached in support trenches, (page 103) remainder in support at Eykhoek (15km North of Poperinge).

6PM 'C' squadron relieved from trenches by 15th Hussars

April 27th EYKHOEK
Remained in readiness at Eykhoek.

28th April EYKHOEK
Captain E.W. Parks  AVC appointed VO I/C regiment
9AM Left Eykhoek and spent day in field W of 15 km stone on Poperinghe-Proven road
8PM Proceeded towards Herzeele, arrived there about 11PM and billeted

29th April HERZEELE

Received reinforcements of 2 officers 370 OR and 40 horses from base
Remained in a state of readiness

30 April HERZEELE
 Remained in a state of readiness

1 May HERZEELE
 Remained in a state of readiness

1 May 1915 HERZEELE (Vol. 2, archived as page 112)
 Remained in a state of readiness
3:30PM Orders received to concentrate*. Moved to Esquelbecq and billeted there

3 May 1915 ESQUELBECQ
3:45PM Concentrated* and returned to St. Sylvestre Cappel

4 May 1915 ST. SYLVESTRE CAPPEL
Remained in billlets ready to move at short notice

5 May 1915
Remained in the same billets

6 May 1915
Remained in the same billets
Fatigue party of 300 men went to dig near Ypres under the command of Major M. Archer-Shee

7 May 1915
Working party remained at Vlamertinghe during the day and returned to dig at night
ST. SYLVESTRE CAPPEL Remainder of regiment remained in billets

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Victor died in action on may 24th 1915

Late on May 23rd 1915 the 19th Hussars marched back from the front line but Platt stayed there with the 9th Lancers who took over. The records show that he was injured quite seriously by poison gas at 2:55 AM on the 24th. He survived but died in action back at Ypres in 1916. The rest of the unit weren't affected by gas; I find this comforting, because by all accounts poison gas was a slow and painful way to die. Casualties overnight night appear as appendix 9 in the war diaries. This shows numbers killed, wounded, hospitalised  by gas, and missing, but only gives the names of Officers.  It is a reasonable supposition that Victor was killed in the heavy shelling and recorded as missing.

You can read a little about how Victor's life and death was remembered by his older brother Jack and his mother Charlotte on Jack's page.

SOURCES

24 May 1915• Death in battle
UK, WWI War Diaries (France, Belgium and Germany), 1914-1920 Household Cavalry and Cavalry of the Line 1st Cavalry Division Piece 1115: 9 Cavalry Brigade (1915 - 1919) pages 116-128
Seen on Ancestry Jan 2017

*The military term 'concentration' in Wikipedia -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_concentration

Further reading
Captain Henry Evelyn Arthur Platt by William Bridge ISBN 9781479180479
Available as a ebook from Kobo Dec 2016
available from Amazon Jan 2017

Some of the source material for the book appears on the Stanwardine Hall website

Also on The Widecombe-in-the-Moor website

Battlefield Tours
Guided Battlefield Tours

© John Hoare 2017-01-08

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