Claude Coates BELL [22776]

  General Notes:

Trooper Claude Coates Bell, was killed in the Boer War.

A memorial was raised to him and the others of the Ceylon Contingent:
Ceylon Contingent Memorial This memorial was erected opposite the 'Mahamaluwa' (Esplanade) Sri Lanka in commemoration of the services of the Ceylon Contingent in South Africa, 1900 - 1902 and unveiled by Field Marshal H. R. H. the Duke of Connaught, K. G., G. C. M. G. March 18, 1907. "In memoriam - Lieut. Arthur, A. Thomas, W. Max Kelly, C. Campion, Q. M., St. Cheyne, A. S. Hopper, K. Hamilton, Claude C. Bell, N. W. Smellie."
This Memorial was designed by Mrs. Thomas, wife of Edward Hector Le Marchant Thomas, a brother of Lieutenant Thomas. It represents a trooper of the Ceylon Mounted Infantry giving the signal 'enemy is in sight.' This statue was pulled down in an undergraduate protest in the 1960's and never re-instated. Now the Memorial is kept in the compound of the Military Headquarters in Kandy.

The action in which Claude Coates Bell was killed was at Hammones Fontein Farm near Bultfontein [Orange River Colony].

  Other Records

1. Census: England, 3 Apr 1881, Lonsdale House Cheltenham GLS. Claude is recorded as a nephew at the home of his aunt Georgihannah aged 9 a scholar born Poona East Indies