Redford Bell, 1889 - 1917

Redford was born on 18th January 1889 in Bishop Auckland, County Durham and died at the age of 28 on 23rd April 1917 during the first day of the 2nd Battle of the Scarpe, east of Arras in northern France.

Redford's records

Redford signed on with the Army on 11th September 1914. He had received his call-up notice from the 6th Durham Light Infantry but was for some reason assigned to the 7th Battalion of the Border Regiment. He was trained there as a machine gunner, a far cry from his previous occupation as miner.
By the time he died, Redford was a veteran of the Great War, having seen action at Ypres in 1915/16, the Somme in 1916 and Arras in 1917. During his time on the Somme he had suffered from trench foot, spending about a month in hospital before returning to active duty:

Redford's service record

After the Second Battle of the Scarpe - part of the Arras offensive - the standard Army form used for recording offences listed him as "missing". This was then amended to "presumed dead 23/4/17":

Redford's conduct sheet

He is commemorated on bay 6 of the Arras Memorial, which suggests that either his body was never found or identified or his wartime grave was destroyed in a later battle. It's also possible that he is in one of the "unknown" graves of the cemeteries of the Scarpe battlefield.
Redford's Medal Index Card (National Archives ref. WO 372/2/87486) lists the three standard medals for a soldier serving in France prior to 1916:

The 7th Battalion, Border Regiment prepares for war

The 7th Battalion, Border Regiment was formed at Carlisle on 7 September 1914 as part of K2, Kitchener's Second New Army. The 7th Borders came under orders of 51st Brigade in the 17th (Northern) Division which was established by the Northern Command in September 1914.
Early days were somewhat chaotic, the new volunteers having very few trained officers and NCOs to command them, no organised billets or equipment. The units of the Division initially concentrated in the Wareham - Lulworth - Swanage - Wool - Bovington area of Dorset but moved in late May 1915 to the Winchester area.
After receiving an order that the Division would be retained for home defence (subsequently cancelled), advance parties left for France on 6 July 1915. Main embarkation began on 12 July, 7th Borders landing in Boulogne on 15th July (Redford's Medal Index Card indicates that in his case this was actually 24th July), and units moved to concentrate near St Omer.

The rest of Redford's war

The rest of the actions of the 7th Borders up to and including the 2nd Battle of the Scarpe can be seen on this page.