Site Home
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies.
If you enjoy this site please consider making a donation.
Great War Home
Search
Add Stories & Photos
Library
Help & FAQs
Features
Allied Army
Day by Day
RFC & RAF
Prisoners of War
War at Sea
Training for War
The Battles
Those Who Served
Hospitals
Civilian Service
Women at War
The War Effort
Central Powers Army
Central Powers Navy
Imperial Air Service
Library
World War Two
Submissions
Add Stories & Photos
Time Capsule
Information
Help & FAQs
Glossary
Our Facebook Page
Volunteering
News
Events
Contact us
Great War Books
About
214035Rfn. 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 RiflesThomas, 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.
Related Content:
Can you help us to add to our records?
The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them
Did your relative live through the Great War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial?
If so please let us know.
Do you know the location of a Great War "Roll of Honour?"We are very keen to track down these often forgotten documents and obtain photographs and transcriptions of the names recorded so that they will be available for all to remember.
Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice.
Celebrate your own Family History
Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Great War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc.
Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.
The free section of The Wartime Memories Project is run by volunteers.
This website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions.
If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running.
Hosted by:
Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV
- All Rights Reserved -We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.