Lance-Corporal W. BELL (d.1897)

W. Bell was a lance-corporal in the 2nd Battalion of the Oxfordshire Light Infantry (Regimental No. 3482). He served both on the Punjab Frontier and at Tirah in 1897.

On 29 December 1897 pickets placed by the Oxfordshire Light Infantry at Ali Musjid were fired upon, and on 3 January 1898 The Times reported thus on the fighting:

He was shot in the head when crossing open ground. Private Butler started to carry his body down the ravine, but he himself was shot in the leg and then shot dead a few yards further on.

The Guardian of 5 January 1898 named Lance-Corporal W. Bell as one of the three men killed, along with Sergeant J. S. Hopkins and Private W. Butler, who are grouped with him on the memorial. (Sergeant-Major H. H. Dempsey who is listed just above them was badly injured and later died of his wounds.)

The Times of 3 February 1898 (p. 12) quotes a long extract of a letter from an officer describing in full detail what happened at Ali Musjid, explaining that Lance-Corporal Bell was shot dead when he was helping to carry three men wounded in the first volley to a nearby house.

He was posthumously awarded the India Medal with two clasps.