Contributed by Ron Inglis, October 2021
In the service records of 2331 Sergeant William Stanley Bell (27) there is no documentary evidence linking him to Auburn. Bell was born in Liverpool, England, and he nominated his sister, Miss Elizabeth Bell, of 12 Ennerdale Street, Liverpool, UK, as his next-of-kin.
Bell enlisted at Liverpool, New South Wales, on 9 June 1915 and embarked on the Orsova on 14 July 1915. Back in Egypt after one month on Gallipoli, Bell was promoted to Sergeant and posted to the 4th Battalion. The battalion proceeded through Marseilles on 3 April 1916 and took up its position in the nursery sector, just south of the French town of Armentieres.
Sergeant Bell was killed by random shell fire on 29 June 1916. He had been in the AIF for just on a year, but his actual time on the front line was a total of 3 months. Bell was buried in the Y Farm Military Cemetery near the village of Bois-Grenier. Seven years later, his medals were sent to his sister via Australia House in London. The allocation of Bell’s medals to his sister indicates that Sergeant Bell was single, that his parents were deceased and that he had no children and no brothers.
We can tell 2331 Sergeant Bell is the veteran inscribed as 'Bell W. S.' on the Auburn War Memorial through an In Memoriam notice in The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate, 5 August 1916, p6:
ROLL OF HONOR. BELL Killed in action, in France, June 29th, 1916, Sergt. William Stanley Bell, late of Liverpool, England, J Keay, 'Keswick,' Harrow-road, Auburn.
A week later, a more detailed tribute appeared in the same newspaper (The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate, 12 August 1916, p10):
When a mere lad Private W. S. Bell had the misfortune to lose both his parents, and at the age of 15 years he came out from England to friends of his father, Mr. and Mrs. James Keay, of "Keswick," Harrow-road, Auburn, and though he travelled far and oft afterwards, he always regarded that as his home. He came out from England as cabin boy in the S.S. Cufic (White Star line) and for some time afterwards held positions on vessels engaged in the coastal trade. He occasionally took longer trips, sometimes to Vancouver. Afterwards he worked as a wool-classer in different places in N.S. Wales and Queensland. He enlisted at Sydney and left for Egypt on July 26, last year, with the 7th Reinforcements of the 4th Battalion. He was at Gallipoli for some months, and after the evacuation went to France. He was killed on June 29 at the battle of Delville Wood.
The reference to Delville Wood is incorrect. In June 1916, the 4th Battalion was in the nursery sector and had not yet engaged in any major action on the Western Front. Delville Wood, the place where the South Africans had their first action on the Western Front, lies some 90 kilometres south of where Sergeant Bell is buried.
William is not related to the other Bell on the Auburn War Memorial, 13191 Bell G. R. A.
William Stanley Bell is honoured on the following memorials in Australia:
- Auburn War Memorial
- Municipality of Auburn 1914-1919 Honour Roll
- Roll of Honour Australian War Memorial Canberra
His decorations:
- Victory Medal
- British War Medal 1914-20
- 1914-1915 Star