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Rfn. Thomas John Bell
British Army C Coy. 13th Btn. Royal Irish Rifles
from:Dromore, Co. Down
(d.28th Jun 1916)
Rifleman Thomas John Bell – No. 16230 served with C. Company, 13th Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles
Thomas, son of John and Martha Bell of Ballyvicknakelly, was born in Dromore, County Down on the 11th May 1878. He had two sisters, Agnes and Mary (Minnie). He was employed as a Railway Porter for the Great Northern Line in Dromore. He was a member of Dromore Cathedral Church, Orange Order Ballynavicknakelly LOL No.828, No.11 Royal Black Preceptory and Dromore Masonic Lodge No. 70.
His sister Agnes Sarah was married to Robert James Martin and Thomas was staying with her in Mount Street, Dromore at the time of the 1901 census, while Robert was in the Boer War, to help her and her two young children Thomas Neill Martin and Mary Minnie Martin.
Thomas was an old member of the South Down Militia and took an active part in the training of the local Ulster Volunteer Force in Dromore. As one of its founding members, when the call came he set off from Dromore Railway Station with the rest of the company on the 19th September 1914 for Clandeboye Camp, where he enlisted into the First County Down Volunteers, later to be called the 13th Battalion, the Royal Irish Rifles.
In the Somme sector prior to the fateful 1st July 1916 the 13th Battalion and the 9th Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers were both in a village called Rainneville , but it was too small to accommodate both so the 13th moved to a village called St. Gratien about 4 miles behind the front line. On the 28th June 1916 the 13th were moving to the front line to relieve the 11th Battalion by platoons and, as the last platoon in C Company formed up to march off, a German shell hit them and the explosion killed 14 outright with another 7 dying the next day.
The 14 killed that day were the first burials in a new British War Cemetery near the village of Martinsarts and Thomas lies in Plot 1 Row A Grave 1. He never reached the safety of the trenches that day, trenches that his younger nephew Tommy Martin (16th Btn.) had helped to prepare, but he did miss the horrors of the 1st July as was pointed out in a letter to his parents by a Sgt. Henderson who knew him well.
