WW 1

Jonathan is a coach driver who spends most of his working life touring the French/Belgium battlefields, when his tour party's are off doing their own thing, He search for plaques on memorials to the fallen of the Bethell line. Below are some that he has found. This summer I hope he may be able to photograph these to add to the site. Also you can add a piece from your family who were in the war .

My great-uncle is listed on your WWI memorial site as DOUGLAS BETHELL PRIVATE ROYAL WARWICK REGT PIER FACE9A,9B,10B THIEPVAL and I was very moved to find a photo of the cemetery, and his memorial online from your link..

Douglas BETHELL, born in 1897, was Thomas Duke BETHELL (1862-1964) and Elizabeth's (nee BARRIE) third son of seven children, and his mother's darling. During World War One, he was a tall and many-looking fellow, so much so that some local girls gave him a white feather, the dreaded jibe at a young man who was thought to be too much of a coward to fight for his country. So Douglas of course rushed off to enlist. His mother Elizabeth was devastated and rightfully full of foreboding.

Douglas was killed in the trenches in France in 1916. My grandmother (Annette Jean BETHELL) was with her mother Elizabeth when, she said, her mother turned white and nearly fainted saying "He's gone". The official telegram arrived a few days later.

As soon as WWI was declared Donald, aged 20, joined up in Canada where he was working. He ended the war as a Major. He joined the Colonial Service and at the time of his death in 1935 was the Colonial treasurer in Gibraltar. He married a Canadian, Kathleen Wilson-Smith (Kay), and they had three sons, Andrew (Drew), Anthony (Tony) and, much later, Denis.

Donald died in 1935 when only in his early 40s. My grandmother was devastated at his sudden, shocking death and (even in 1935 at all the press intrusion, because Donald shot himself). He had very serious gambling debts, the situation probably exacerbated by his position as Colonial Treasurer of Gibraltar. Kay, his widow, was left with two sons and a toddler, but the British government paid, under the terms of his pension, for all three to be educated at an English public school, Sherborne in Dorset.

His second son Anthony (Richard Anthony BETHELL), was born 19 Apr 1922, and was a Flight Lieutenant in the RAF, flying Mustangs, and, after being shot down over France, became one of a handful of survivors of Stalag luft 51, a real “Great Escapee”. He has an obituary in The Times Online and elsewhere. He died 17 Feb 2004, in Caledon, Canada. Part of Caledon Hospice is named after him after he left them a large sum of money in his will.

Douglas’s first son, Donald Andrew (Drew) Douglas Jardine BETHELL was born in 1921 and died in 1988, in Spain on his 67^th birthday.

“Major General "Drew" BETHELL, who has died in Spain on his 67th birthday, made a daring and ambitious escape from a prisoner-of-war camp in Italy during the 1939-45 war. After being wounded in Tunisia he was taken prisoner but managed to escape to in the summer of 1943 from the camp in Fontellata. He walked for 500 miles through the Appennines, avoiding German patrols, in a journey which took him 42 days to reach the British lines at Campo Basso. Bethell rejoined his regiment and fought for them for the rest of the Italian campaign. Twenty years later he added to his reputation for coolness and quick-thinking when commanding the 26th Field Regiment, RA in the United Nations peace-keeping force in Cyprus. Just before his death he retraced his steps across the Appennines for a BBC television documentary. The STRANGER AT THE GATE (1988), produced by his son, Andrew BETHELL, who, since 2003, he has been the creative, and editorial, driving force behind the success of Teachers TV.”

If you can pass this to others who might be interested, together with my email address, please do.

I am carrying out some research into the whether there are living relatives of Capt Thomas Henry Bethell of 2/7th Royal Warwickshire's .He was killed at Fromelles France on 19th July 1916. Born in Coventry in 1885, the son of Thomas Burnet Bethell born 1860 and Annie Jane Matherson born 1885. Thomas was a barrister and served as a captain in the Territorial's before WW1.

Currently he is named as one of the those whose remains may be in a mass grave at Fromelles currently being exhumed for reburial, hopefully in marked graves. In order to achieve this relatives are required in order to give DNA samples.

I have my own relative who is possibly in the same mass graves and I've offered to help trace other relatives of missing men.

Therefore wondered if you knew of any connection and whether there are still relatives of his family still alive?

My name is Richard Bethell of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Here is a bit of information for your WW1 page.

My great grandfather William Edward Bethell came to Canada in 1907 with his wife and four children. They were originally from Deptford (London) at 58 Coldbath street. Upon arriving in Canada, they took up residence in Westboro, near Ottawa.

William was in his 30's when he joined up to fight in WW1. In 1915 he joined the 38th Battalion (Ottawa) of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. He was a private. He was wounded at the Battle of the Somme and repatriated to Canada I think in 1917. He died in 1951 in Windsor Ontario.

Good luck with your worthwhile work. I'll bookmark your site and contribute what information I can.

My family in the war Grandfather Robert Conning Bethell 1 st Battalion Hereford Reg went to Turkey and was returned to France to finish the war there returned to Hereford. Granddad William John Strong Berkshire Yeomanry was wounded and returned to uk for treatment. worked all his life after the war in an ammunition depot as a workshop general hand.

Don't forget you can access the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site for free to search you family or regiment

Send mail to with questions or comments about this web site. mail to: john@jebmaintenance.co.uk