Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria. To coincide with the OMRS Convention

An interesting group of six to Chief Petty Officer J. Bell, Royal Navy, who survived five direct hits aboard the cruiser Calliope at Jutland before qualifying for “The Suicide Club”, so-called because its members manned the highly unpredictable “chimneyfied” K-class submarines: unusually, too, subsequent service in H.M. Submarines qualified him for a Palestine 1936-39 clasp

Six: 1914-15 Star (J. 25228 Ord., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (J. 25228 A.B., R.N.); Naval General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Palestine 1936-1939 (J. 25228 C.P.O., R.N.); Coronation 1937; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 2nd issue, fixed suspension (J. 25228 P.O., H.M.S. Dolphin), mounted as worn, the earlier awards polished, thus fine, the remainder very fine and better (6) £350-450

John Bell was born in Preston, Lancashire in October 1897 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class at the training establishment Ganges in June 1913. Following service aboard the battleship H.M.S. Duncan between September 1914 and May 1915, he joined the cruiser Calliope, and was present in her as an Able Seaman at Jutland. As the flagship of the 4th Light Cruiser Squadron, Calliope was heavily engaged throughout the battle, but it was not until the evening that she started to take her first casualties, the result of a duel with two Kaiser class battleships and one Heligoland:

‘ ... only our speed and zigzagging saved us from annihilation. As it was, we seemed to be in the middle of splashes, and the noise of the bursting shell and flying fragments was absolutely deafening. We were hit five times in all, three of which did serious damage to personnel. One shell, bursting against the breech of the port after 4-inch gun, smashed the fittings and gun shield and killed practically all the gun’s crew, the notable exception being the sight-setter, a Corporal of Marines, who had the gun between him and the burst and only suffered a slight scalp wound.

The second hit on us burst near No. 3 4-inch gun under the bridge, disabled the gun, killing and wounding some of the crew, and fragments of this shell penetrated the deck of the lower bridge and wounded a signalman and a bugler.

The third shell penetrated the upper deck, and burst in the boys’ mess deck, almost in the middle of the after dressing station, killing some and wounding many others, including the Staff Surgeon.

For the last five minutes that we were under fire we were in sight of our own ships, although the two battle fleets were invisible to each other, and we were told afterwards that at times we were hidden in spray from the splashes. Altogether, we had 10 killed and 23 wounded, some seriously. We were ordered to take station on the port beam of the battle fleet for the night, and in the morning resumed our cruising station ahead during the search for disabled enemy ships.

On reaching Scapa afterwards, we were ordered in first, instead of waiting for the battle fleet to enter, to land our wounded. Our dead we buried at sea the morning after the action, the Commodore leaving the bridge for a few minutes to read the burial service, the one time he was ever known to leave the bridge at sea.’

Bell left the ship’s company of the Calliope in March 1917 and went on to see service in the destroyers Legion and Leander before finishing his wartime career at Dolphin, following his transferral to the submarine branch in September 1918.

Remaining a submariner for the next five years, he served in K. 12 from October 1919 until January 1922. The K-boat men were collectively known as “The Suicide Club”, such were the shortcomings in the design and performance of their two-funnel ‘chimneyfied’ submarines, a perilous state of affairs that one Officer neatly summarised in the following terms:

‘The K-boats came to grief because they had the speed of a destroyer but the turning circle of a battle cruiser and the bridge control abilities of a picket-boat.’

Bell also “survived” nearly two years in M. 1, an equally hazardous experience, the submarine famously sporting a massive12-inch gun in front of her conning-tower. She quickly sank on being accidentally rammed by a merchantman off Start Point in November 1925, two years after Bell had left her.

In the circumstances, he was probably relieved to return to more normal seagoing duties as a Leading Seaman in early 1924, but, as evidenced by his service record, he was re-appointed to Dolphin as a Petty Officer in December 1928. During his subsequent career as a submariner, which lasted until he was pensioned ashore as a Chief Petty Officer in October 1937, Bell went on to serve in L. 11, H. 30, L. 53 and the Thames, and, unusually, qualify for an “underwater operations” Palestine 1936-39 clasp.

He had been awarded his L.S. & G.C. Medal back in November 1930.