Barwon in The Air Part Two: Captain John Bell and his Monkey.
Captain John Bell and his Monkey. Well, I tootled off with the other chaps behind me ….
John was born on 7 October 1885 near Bannockburn, one of four sons and a daughter born to John and Annie (nee Russell) Bell. He attended Geelong Grammar School and rowed 7 seat in the 1904 and 1905 Head of the River crews. He also served seven years with the School Cadets, the last year as a Lieutenant. He joined Barwon Rowing Club in 1906, the year after he left school, and rowed for the club at Barwon Regattas in Maiden Eights in 1907 and Maiden Fours in 1908. He played eighteen games for the Geelong Football Club in the 1906 and 1908 seasons as a reliable defender.
At the beginning of 1914 John was managing the family property 'Wurrock' near Shelford. After arranging that his youngest brother, George, take over management of the property, he enlisted in the A.I.F. on 3 September at 29 years of age, giving his occupation as grazier. Enlisting on the same day was Edward Norman Belcher, a fellow Barwon member. Both men were appointed lieutenants in the Automobile Corps, donating their La Buire cars; John's a 15.9 h.p. and Edward's a 10-12 h.p., to the Army. The La Buire was imported from France and assembled at Everett Bros. motor workshop in Geelong.
The two men and their cars embarked from Melbourne on 21 October 1914, attached to the 1st Light Horse Brigade Headquarters. After arriving in Egypt they served as drivers for high ranking officers. Early in 1915 Lieut. Belcher wrote home that We are now all settled with the Light Horse, and the same applies to the Infantry, at Mena, near the Pyramids. We (the staff) have an unfurnished bungalow about 300 yards from the camp, and are a very happy family. The cars are all running A1; mine is as good as ever. I go into Cairo nearly every day, or to the Mena Camp, on headquarters work. Today the sand is blowing everywhere. There is a race meeting at Cairo tomorrow (the Khedive Sporting Club) to which I am making a big effort to go; it is only 20 minutes run to Cairo in the car.
We have about half a dozen Arabic interpreters attached to the camp, so there is not much chance of getting boxed with the niggers. The natives are just about the most cunning gentlemen I have struck. Their one and sole object is to best you. They get into the middle of the road, and it takes an extra loud blast to move them. It does not matter much if you kill a native; perhaps it will cost you a fiver, but woe betide you if you kill his donkey. The litigation, etc., they say, would be endless - of course this is all hearsay. Well, Bell is waiting for this to go to Cairo so I must close.
John wrote that It is extraordinary the fellows one runs across, some I had no idea were with the show. We are contemplating a reunion of old boys over here when we get in touch with them, but it is rather difficult to find them all, spread about as we are. We get a good deal of running about in the cars and to see a fair amount of the country ... it is very picturesque.
In May 1915 John arrived on Gallipoli as part of the staff of the 1st Light Horse Brigade. In the middle of October he was appointed temporary Staff Captain and then later as senior Aide-de-Camp to Colonel Chauvel.
In October 1915 John was evacuated to hospital in Malta with enteric fever and three weeks later was sent to hospital in England, taking a few months to recover. Upon his discharge from hospital he went on leave and during this time he arranged a transfer to the British Army with the Royal Flying Corps. From March of 1916 he trained in England with the Australian Flying Corps in 68 Squadron, arriving in Egypt with the squadron in August. Less than a month later he was participating in photography reconnaissance and the bombing of El Arish. He flew with fellow Australians William Guilfoyle and Stan Muir, renowned for flying with his pet monkey, all of them formerly with the Australian Light Horse.
In January 1917 the squadron,complete with the monkey, moved to England and commenced nine months of training for action on the Western Front with No. 2 Squadron, Australia's first operational scout unit, in Airco De Havilland DH5s, a relatively new biplane. Just prior to the group leaving for France, John's best friend, Stan Muir, was accidentally killed. Stan had enlisted in the 4th Light Horse and embarked aboard the Wiltshire along with several Barwon members. He transferred to the R.F.C. about the same time as John and they were in Palestine together when Stan was awarded the Military Cross. On 29 September 1917 Stan was testing a new DH5 biplane and had been in the air for about twenty minutes and was about to return to the hangar when its wings snapped and he fell 500ft. and was killed instantly. He was regarded as one of the best six pilots in the A.F.C. and was noted for his "stunts". Eyewitness accounts tell that when the onlookers went to the smash the man was unrecognisable, every bone in his body must have been broken; our crowd was all broken up over his death, for he was white to the soles of his feet. His death really affected John; he was apparently "pretty inconsolable".
On the morning of 20 November 1917 the battle for Cambrai in France began in a heavy mist. Fierce artillery barrages were under way from both sides when a flight of six planes from John's squadron took off to bomb the German lines. The mist was so heavy that formation flying was impossible and so the planes set off in pairs. John, the squadron's most experienced and able flight commander, led C Flight out on the first ground attack assignment. John choose to attack a series of German artillery positions, receiving serious bullet wounds in the chest from ground fire, forcing him to land near the front lines.
He was rescued by advancing British troops and taken to a Casualty Clearing Station, where he wrote to his brother: I am at present at No. 55 Casualty Clearing Station, having been wounded on the 20th November. We went out at 7 a.m.(my flight six machines) on that morning to take part in the Cambrai stunt. It was horribly foggy and misty, only could see about 300 feet. At one aerodrome next to ours the patrol went off and ran into each other over their own drome; two chaps killed. Well,I tootled off with the other chaps behind me, but soon lost them and never saw them again. Our job was to go low and strafe the trenches with machine guns ahead of the tanks, which were rolling up the wire on the Hindenburg line. I soon found the war, shells, tanks, rifles, in fact a little hell. I spotted a crowd of Huns sitting round the top of a dugout, like a lot of rabbits round a burrow. I dived and let off a burst at them and they hopped it. I came back to have another go at 'em when they must have got a machine gun or a couple of rifles onto me (I was only about 100 feet away by this time) and plugged me behind the left shoulder, and hit the petrol tank. Luckily she did not catch on fire, and I managed to turn on my spare tank and the engine picked up. I had horrible wind up for a bit, thought I was down in Hunland. I managed to pull myself together and flew towards our lines, where I could see our forward guns flashing, and landed safely by a fluke alongside a battery, where they soon had me out of the machine and on a stretcher down to a dressing station, and from thence down to here, where I was operated on that night. Cracked a rib and sent a couple of pieces into the lung, otherwise no damage done elsewhere, which is rather lucky. However, what there is is painful enough, but I am getting along OK, and expect they will shift me on to the base in a week or so now, and then onto England.
Our Commanding Officer came up and saw me one evening. I am now back in the A.I.F. My transfer went through on October 28th. Whether it will make any difference I don't now know. The only thing is they may give me a trip to Australia when convalescent, which would be a rather nice change. Anyway I am going to have a good spell until winter is over.
During that morning, four pilots were shot down and seven aircraft crashed.
Private Verner Knuckey was a wireless operator with the squadron and wrote of John's exploits in his diary. Captain Bell - OC of my flight - got a very short run for his morning - very early in the morning he got shot through the chest - the bullet passing right through and into his petrol tank behind. We always made a boast in our flight that no matter what happened, Capt. Bell he would make a good landing. He was a stretcher case from the moment he was taken out of his machine and yet he landed safely and for anyone knowing how difficult it is to land a DH5 aeroplane that will realise what a spirit this man had. He was taken away to hospital at once as he came down near an English battery of artillery, was operated on early in the afternoon and latest reports are that he is doing well. He was the last of our three very good pilots who came from Egypt with us. Re death of Stan Muir - he and Capt. Bell were bosom pals, and I will never forget the look on the latter's face at Muir's graveside. For months Capt. Bell has been a changed man, always a thorough gentleman, and last week some of us remarked that our Captain was just beginning to get over the loss of his friend. We all hope Capt. Bell gets better but we don't expect him back with us again as no doubt he will go back to England and get charge of one of the new squadrons forming up there. C Flight were very proud of their Captain both as an officer and a man, he would come up to our quarters and see if we were comfortable, and suggest improvements and get them for us. He was a level headed cool pilot and knew his game from A to Z.
Although initially seeming to improve, John died of his wounds in his sleep on 27 December 1917. His Colonel said of him He had God's own gift of making friends wherever he went. I have lost a real friend and a first rate one, and the Squadron, a fine officer and leader. At the end of the war, Private Knuckey wrote of John's death that he was One of the best pilots that ever stepped into a machine. Low flying was the order of the day (I think for the first time in the annals of this war) and in any case it was the first time that scout machines were used for carrying bombs, as each man carried 20lb. bombs under their machines. On December 28th we were advised by telephone that he had died during the night before at 10 pm. and so that saw the end of the three wonderful airmen we had brought from Egypt with us [Guilfoyle, Muir and Bell], perhaps the three best men that ever flew with the A.F.C.
You will remember me speaking of a small monkey we brought from Egypt with us owned by Capt. Muir. At his death Capt. Bell took charge of him and we brought him with us on to France. Bell died in hospital some twenty miles from our aerodrome and the night he passed away the poor little monkey passed also, it seems a very strange coincidence as we have had many colder nights before. He had caused great amusement among the French folk, most of them never having seen a monkey before, and as a regimental pet he was a great favourite.
A four-bladed propeller, suitably inscribed by the members of his squadron, was placed at John's grave. Late in December his brother, William, wrote to Army Base Records in Melbourne, enquiring about the fate of John's car, which he claimed he had given to his brother as a gift. He received the following reply: I have endeavoured to ascertain some information concerning the motor car which your brother took away with him on active service, but, beyond the fact that it automatically reverted to the Government nothing can be learned concerning it. William replied that it was of no matter, he had just wanted to be reassured that it was still "doing its bit". He later wrote asking for the return of the inscribed propeller but received only the memorial tablet.
Whilst John was lying injured at the C.C.S., his mother and sister were both in London - his sister, Margaret Gladys, working with the Voluntary Aid Detachment in London hospitals. As John was too ill to be moved, and because his C.C.S. was so close to the front lines, they were unable to visit him, although he wrote to his mother every day to reasssure her that he was progressing well.
Of his three brothers, the eldest William remained in Geelong working at Dennys Lascelles wool brokers. His other brothers, George Russell and Alan, both served with the British Army in the Royal Field Artillery. George died of wounds, sustained just a week before the Armistice was declared, on 4 December 1918, whilst Alan survived the war, although badly gassed.On 28th April 1931 the family dedicated two stained glass windows at the All Saints' Chapel at Geelong Grammar School. John's window depicts a young schoolboy holding a football.
