Orders, Decorations and Medals

Pair: Captain A. M. Mac G. Bell, Royal Scots Fusiliers, late Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 2 copy clasps, Cape Colony, South Africa 1902 (Lieut., A. & S. Highrs.); 1914 Star (Capt., R. Sc. Fus.) very fine (2) £300-350

Alexander Murray MacGregor Bell was born in Weymouth on 4 September 1880, the second son of William Bell of Stirling, late Lieutenant-Colonel, 56th Regiment. Educated at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Kingston and Stirling High School, he was gazetted into the 3rd (Militia) Battalion Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders on 30 December 1901. With them he served in South Africa and was awarded the Queen’s medal with two clasps. He was gazetted into the Royal Garrison Artillery in February 1903 and was transferred to the Dorset Regiment in May 1905. He was promoted to Lieutenant and transferred to the Royal Scots Fusiliers in January 1907 and advanced to Captain in May 1912. From May 1904 to May 1905 he was A.D.C. to the Governor of Natal and was Superintendent Gymnasia, Scottish Command, February 1913-November 1914, when he rejoined his battalion in Flanders. He was appointed Adjutant in December 1914. Captain Bell was wounded at Ypres on 19 February 1918 and died of his wounds in London on 28 April 1918 and was buried in All Saints Cemetery, Kensall Green, London. He was mentioned in Field Marshal Sir John French’s despatch of 31 May 1915.

The officer commanding his battalion, writing to his parents, said of him, ‘The regiment was moving across some open ground under heavy shell fire, and your son and I were together at the moment we were both knocked over. He was hit on the back and right arm. I can only assure you that his gallantry and devotion to duty has been most marked’. Sold with copied research and photograph.