Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, no clasp (R. E. Bell, Blk. Mte. H.M.S. Niobe.) very fine £140-£180

Richard Ernest Bell was born on 1 November 1872, at Dartmouth, Devon, and joined the Royal Navy as a blacksmith’s mate on 30 April 1894. He joined H.M.S. Niobe on 6 December 1898 and served in her until 8 February 1901, earning the Queen's South Africa medal without clasp. After subsequent service in Vivid II, Pearl, Simoom, Vivid II again, and then in Indus, Bell joined H.M.S. Cambridge on 16 April 1905. He tragically met his death on 26 August 1905, in circumstances reported thus in a local newspaper:

‘The Warship Tragedy. - At Devonport on Monday an inquest was held touching the death of Richard Ernest Bell, blacksmith, of H.M.S. Cambridge, gunnery ship, who was killed on the 26th inst. during an affray with a carpenter named Thomas Collins. The medical evidence showed that death was the result of a blow behind the ear, and a verdict of manslaughter against Collins was accordingly returned, he being committed for trial.’

At the subsequent trial for manslaughter, Collins was found to be not guilty by the jury at assizes. However, the judge in summing up stated that he considered Collins was technically guilty of manslaughter. Collins subsequently drowned as a result of the sinking of a ship’s cutter in a blizzard on 28 March 1916.

Sold with further research including copied record of service for both men, each carrying notification of these events.