BELL, Charles

Served in Royal Engineers
Service No: 64178
Died: 4th July 1920

Interred in Bangor Cemetery


Charles Bell was born in London in 1863. A stonemason by trade he married Mary Aicken, a farmer's daughter from Bangor in 1893. According to his attestation papers the marriage took place at 42nd St. Presbyterian Church, New York – surely a story there.

The family lived in Belfast at various addresses – 1901: York Road; 1911: Broadway – and on his enlistment in 1915 were living at 345 Albertbridge Road.

Charles enlisted in the Royal Engineers (121st Field Co.) on 30th January 1915 and was sent to France in October 1915.

He did not serve long and was discharged as no longer fit for service in June 1916 – the family now living in Grays Hill in Bangor. Although the few remaning records do not enlighten as to the cause of illness, his death certificate records that he had suffered for nephritis for the previous four years indicating that this was the probable cause.

He suffered a cerebral haemorrhage and died on 4th July 1920 at the family home Prospect Park, Bangor.