Orders, Decorations and Medals

A Great War M.C. group of seven awarded to Brigadier Leonard Charles Bell, Royal Highlanders (Black Watch), including a regimentally rare I.G.S.

Military Cross, G.V.R., unnamed; British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (Capt.); India General Service 1908-35, 1 clasp, Afghanistan N.W.F. 1919 (Capt., R. Hdrs.); Defence and War Medals, unnamed; Civil Defence Medal, E.II.R., unnamed, good very fine (7) £800-1000

Ex Christies 24 July 1984.

M.C. London Gazette 1 January 1918.

M.I.D. London Gazette 4 January 1917.

Leonard Charles Bell, son of Richard Bell (Brewers Traveller) and Mary, was a native of Theydon Bois, Essex, England, where he was born on 28 December 1891. The 1911 National Census for England and Wales, records him as living with his widowed mother and siblings at 14 Blenheim Road, Walthamstow, N.E. London, and employed as a ‘Sherry Shippers Clerk’. During the Great War, Leonard served in theatre of war, France & Belgium, between 28 April 1916 to 13 October 1917, earning the Military Cross and a M.I.D., while serving with the Royal Highlanders (Black Watch) on the Western Front. He was attached to the Indian Army as an Acting Captain from July 1918 to September 1919, and attached to the Indian Signal Service between May 1919, to May 1922. He transferred back to the British Army in 1922, at which time he joined the Royal Signals. At the end of the Great War the family residence address was The Heights, East Common, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, England. During the Second World War, Leonard remained on ‘Home Service’ in the United Kingdom. After retirement from the British Army, Brigadier Bell, became Chief Officer of Luton Civil Defence. Leonard Bell is recorded as having died at Hastings, East Sussex, England, sometime during the last quarter of 1976.

In Taming The Tiger: The Story of the India General Service Medal 1908-1935, by R. G. M. L. Stiles, only an estimated 7 medals with clasp ‘Afghanistan N.W.F. 1919’ were awarded to all-ranks of the Royal Highlanders (Black Watch), comprising six officers and one other rank, all of whom qualified for the respective medal and clasp while serving on attachment to other units. Bell is shown as a Captain, 1st Battalion Royal Highlanders attached to 36 Divisional Signal Company.