top

Captain Albert Edward Odell, MC and Bar.   1886-1979.

50th (Northumbrian) Divisional Signal Coy. R.E.

Officer commanding No. 2 then No.1 Section

149th Infantry Brigade Signals.  1915 to 1919

Captain A.E. Odell (Centre)

There follows a compilation of my research on Bert Odell and his brother George. They grew up in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey as I did, and spent a lifetime in telecommunications, as have I.  This tribute is in respect for the years they gave during the Great War, along with countless others. Years that they gave willingly, so that we might be free. We may never know what they endured, with modern standards we may only guess, but  I am sure that they could not be a better example, of how when the chips are down, most men will stand up and be counted.

Bert and George were lucky, they came through, to live full lives. Many did not. This website, and the hours that I have put in, is my tribute to them, to Captain Francis Buckley, who figures in this story, to my Great Uncle, who died in Bucquoy with the 46th Division, and the thousands of sons, brothers and fathers who fell, and whose fates and suffering, may never be recorded.

             Guy Smith   e mail:   www.guy@trenchmap.com

 

  Link to George Odell (Bert's Brother and R.E.Officer)

 

Captain Albert Edward Odell  M.C & Bar.

1886 - 1979 (93yrs)

Bert Odell was born in 1886, The second son of John, Odell,  his father worked in a  Drapers shop in Kingston upon Thames, living at 9 Ceres street.

Bert Odell was educated at Tiffins Boys, Kingston, with his brother George, and later Kings College London,  qualifying  as a  'Patent Agent' in 1908,  and subsequently working in the city for a company called "Sefton +Stephens"dealing with telephony inventions and Patent applications.  He later bought into the practice after the Great War, and it then became "Sefton, Odell and Stephens".  Bert was an intelligent, and well educated man, and during the course of his business, he came into contact with many important people involved in the history of the telephone,   including Alexander Graham Bell, dealing with the technicalities of their various Patent applications, for the instruments that were the forefathers of our modern telephone systems.

Father: John Odell. John Odell worked in a Drapers shop in Kingston upon Thames.

Mother:

(Older) Brother: Jack Odell (married Minnie) worked at Sopwith aircraft production (later Hawkers) in Kingston upon Thames.

(Younger) Brother: George Frederick Odell. Bsc. M I. EE

George worked for the G.P.O. prior to the Great War, and after joining up, worked in France for the Army equivalent. No 5 Telephone Construction Company,  "L Signals" Battalion,  Royal Engineers. After the war he re joined the G.P.O. and years later rose to be 'Director of Contracts'. He died in the mid sixties.

Sister:  Ada L Odell. Ada also worked for the Post Office and died in 1948.

Bert described his own role in the Great War on a later job application:

1st Signals Officer of the 149th Infantry Brigade, commanding No 2 Section then: Officer commanding No1 Section of the same Company. then Captain in Charge of Artillery Signals 15th (Scottish) Division

TRAINING

Bert  enlisted voluntarily on the 20^th January 1915, shown in Officers List as: Sergeant Major in Royal Army Medical Corps,  and passed into the Officer training system.

It would appear from his letters, that he had an appreciation of the wider scope of events that were taking place.  Indeed most of the earlier letters are spent trying to dissuade his brother from doing the same. Bert felt that somebody had to stay behind and look after the family.

After joining up, at the age of 31, he spent a while in training,  by the sea at Marlborough, and subsequently at Bognor and the Signal School at the R.E depot at Hitchin in Hertfordshire.  Due to his aforementioned technical knowledge, from his letters home it is apparent that he was almost certainly way ahead of his tutors, and considered army ways to be dull, and a complete waste of effort. He was obviously exasperated by the officialdom and historical doctrines of the British Army, and considered them to be  be wasting his time. He was, however, learning all the peculiarities of army life, and gained his first insights into the daily drudgery and boredom.

 

Bert seen here during Officer training at the Marlborough Hotel,  1915

Bert seen here passing out from his officer training in 1915

Bert is in the middle row, second from the right.   

Here is the detail picture.

HILL 60

After passing out as an officer, Bert spotted a posting for the Northumberland Fusiliers, and thinking that it might get him to France before the war was over, he signed up.

Assigned as Brigade Signals Officer: Temp. 2^nd Lieutenant (New Army) attached: 149^th Infantry Brigade, 50th (Northumbrian) Divisional Signal Company Royal Engineers.  (Later A/Captain 1918)

Bert embarked to France on the 23rd December 1915. He joined the 149th Infantry Brigade, as Brigade Signals Officer, an important position in charge of all communications between Brigades, Battalions and Brigade Headquarters. The brigade at the time holding the  Front Line at Hill 60. He got the job he said "because there was a vacancy".

Click to view Trench Map of Hill 60 in 1915

This is one of Odell's maps brought back from this section of the line. Kindly lent by his family

Bert’s first taste of trench life was near Hill 60 and Sanctuary Wood, the scene of the bitter fighting a year previously. This period comprised holding the line in rotation, with moves to Mount Sorrel, Canny Hill, Kemmel, Wytschaete and Messines ridge. Here Bert received  his initial acclimatisation to life as a busy signals officer. Things could not exactly be described as quiet, but were so, compared with what was to follow later on the Somme. It is here that he first made the acquaintance of  Lt. Francis Buckley, with whom he later became firm friends. It is here that Bert and Francis as new officers, cut their teeth as it were, for the coming battles in which they were to be heavily engaged over the following two years, Bert as brigade signalling officer, and Buckley, initially as an infantry Lieutenant, and subsequently as officer in charge of bombing and Brigade bombing school, followed by enemy observation, something in which he became somewhat of a specialist.

  Go to War Diary view of Ypres front at Hill 60

 

Captain Francis Buckley of the 7th Northumberland Fusiliers, figures highly in this story. A great friend of Bert's for a lifetime, both during and after the Great War (as many friendships were) it is thanks to him, and his labour of love in writing both the ' History of the 7th NF', plus 'Q6a AND OTHER PLACES' that we are left with a very human tale of what it was actually like to serve with the 50th Division in France. 

Francis Buckley wrote of Odell  in 'Q6a AND OTHER PLACES' :

I was destined to see much of the Brigade Signaller, Lieut. A.E.Odell, who was quite a remarkable character. He was a lion in the guise of a dove, an autocrat in the guise of an army reformer. He won the M.C. and Bar and earned them both. He worked his men hard but himself harder still. He had the curious faculty of being able to work for hours by day and spend the whole night in some muddy ditch up in the front line. His kindness to and consideration for his signallers, were only exceeded by his conscientious devotion to duty. He made me respect and like and envy him, even if he occasionally made me smile.

Download this book here;

http://www.archive.org/details/q6aandotherplaces00buckuoft

 

THE SOMME

By August 1916, the war was gearing up for a great offensive in the South, and on the 17th, the Division entrained for the Somme. The division was relocated to an area, in and around Mametz Wood, and Bazentin le Petit Quarry, in preparation for the opening battles for the 50^th Division on the 15^th Sept. They were too late for the main assault on the 1st July 1916, but were set to take part in the second wave of action.

Goto detailed account of the 15th September 1916

The 50^th Div and the 149^th Infantry Brigade were heavily involved in this action, going over the top from Clark's trench,  in front of Bazentin le Petit, with High Wood on their right, and Le Sars on the left. This was incidentally the first offensive to make use of the new Tanks, and one was allotted to the 50^th Div.   The Division was relatively successful, however, High Wood was not taken on the right by the 47^th Division, until midday, leaving the 50^th  Divn  badly exposed, and suffering casualties, from withering machine gun fire from the wood.  On this day, Francis Buckley was wounded in the face by a shell splinter, but remained on duty.

THE BUTTE DE WARLENCOURT AND HOOK SAP

There followed two months bitter fighting around the Butte de Warlencourt, Hook Sap, Butte Trench and the G.I.R.D. Line. Two companies of the 7^th Northunbrian Fusiliers who gained a footing in Hook Sap, perished to the last man, overwhelmed by successive German counter- attacks. The 5^th N.F. did well and held their ground, however, due to the exposed position it eventually had to be abandoned.

Goto detailed account of this action at Hook Sap

  Goto War Diary view of Hook Sap

Click to view Trench Map of Hook Sap

Extract from a Trench Map showing Hook Sap, where two companies of the 7th N.F. disappeared.

During the Somme battles, the Signal service was experiencing new problems with the transition from fixed position warfare. The powers that be, had become used to a standard of reliability of the telephone system,  but during the extensive bombardments that took place, and gradual advances forward of the deep buried cable head, it became increasingly difficult to maintain lines. The signallers in addition suffered heavy casualties, up to 50 percent in some engagements, and the few remaining found they were stretched to the limits, being asked to each do the work of three men.  A signal officers job was to apply all methods of signalling at his disposal, whichever suited his needs best in order to maintain links. Bert was no exception. During this period from the 15th of September until December, Bert worked feverishly to maintain touch with the often hard pressed companies of the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th battalions Northumberland Fusiliers. For his efforts, he was awarded the Military Cross by the Queen in the New Years honours list

The Battle of Arras

In early 1917, after the organised retreat of the Germans back to their well prepared Hindenberg Line.

Bert Odell and Francis Buckley took part in  The first Battle of the Scarpe, and the Capture of the Wancourt ridge, and Wancourt Tower. The 7th NF retaking the tower with very few casualties, under cover of a barrage from five brigades of artillery.

  Goto War Diary View of THE BATTLE OF ARRAS

Goto more detail on this attack on THE WANCOURT TOWER

 

Third Ypres, The battle of Passchendale and the Attack on the Houthulst Forest

In October 1917, The 50th Division was moved north to Belgium, to take its share in the Battle of Passchendale. The ground rising to the ridges to the west of Ypres, has become symbolic of the suffering that was endured by our men in Belgium. Mostly previously reclaimed land by drainage, the heavy and continuous bombardments of nearly three years of positional warfare, had all but ruined the delicate drainage system. The water table had therefore risen dramatically, turning the mud into a treacherous swamp of shell craters, large enough and deep enough to swallow a man, or even a mule train, that dared to step off the duckboard walkway or prepared road. Such conditions are hard to describe to anybody who had not experienced it.

Attack took place on the 26^th Oct 1917

It was in conditions such as this that the 7th N.F. were asked to line up on the tapes and fight. In blinding rain, and mud up too their knees they went forward against lines of carefully constructed dry concrete machine gun posts in the Houthulst Forest.  The men were mown down in heaps by withering machine gun fire. Twelve officers went over the top that morning and one returned alive.

  War Diary view of the Houthulst Forest (Third Ypres)

  Goto Detailed account of HOUTHULST FOREST ATTACK

Once again, Bert and his signallers were called upon to keep touch with these hard pressed troops. With Battalion HQ at Egypt House, Bert was in charge of the lines of communication to the waterlogged shell holes in which the men found themselves. A tall order even on a dry day, but almost impossible in this mess.

Francis Buckley wrote: Lieut. Odell, the Brigade Signalling Officer, and his men did wonders in keeping the battalions in touch with B.H.Q. during the battle, and for his great personal gallantry on this occasion he received a Bar to his MC.   Q6A Page 157

The citation reads:

Lieut. A.E. Odell awarded Bar to MC in New Years Honours List

“He established and maintained lines 3000 yards in length over the open, close to the Front Line. He remained on duty, 48 hours without rest, in the most exposed place and under most trying weather conditions". (London Gazette Jan 18th 1918)

Note: During February 1918 Francis Buckley and the 7^th NF were transferred to 42^nd East Lancs Territorial Division due to re organisation to three Battalions per Brigade instead of four. This did not apply to Lt. Odell.

Battle of the Aisne and Lys

Details of running from Germans as they captured Brigade HQ, plus the decimation of 50 Division

and Odell despatched to Igny Le Jard to meet the French.

GOTO Personl account of the Battle of Rosierès by Captain Henry Armstrong of the 1/6th N.F.

Goto more details of the Aisne and Lys battles

15th (Scottish) Division Artillery Signals Officer

After the decimation of the 50th Division during the Battle of the Marne, an engagement from which they did not really recover, Bert was by this time an experienced Lieutenant, and was posted as acting Captain to the position of Artillery Signals officer in the 15th Scottish Division. He had, however, never really seen eye to eye with the army, which possibly explains why he did not gain the promotion that might have been expected of someone with such technical experience of telephony. He was never really happy with his move to the Artillery signals, and it never really measured up to his time with the 50th Division, though he did become accustomed to his new form of transport, 'The Motorbike'.

  Goto War Diary View of the 15th (Scottish)

Peacetime

Throughout the war, Bert maintained close links with his Patent office, obviously his forced absence, left the office under staffed, and it was normal practise for important papers to be forwarded to Bert in France by forces mail. Also during the hostilities, Bert was negotiating his formal entry into the partnership, by paying in a proportion of his Officers pay, and writing various letters to his brother, discussing the terms, and the basis on which he could manage to pay his way in the household. It is interesting that despite the obvious horrors of war, and all its dangers (on one occasion Bert was 2ft from a shell that failed to explode) he never lost faith in his future, and continued actively planning what he would do in peacetime.

By the end of the war, Bert had taken very little leave, and the Patent office was in dire need of him, and he asked for immediate leave to attend to matters. This he was granted, and he returned to England. Returning to France again to help in the wrap up and demobilisation of the 15th Scottish Division.

On returning to England, Bert once again took up his peacetime role as Patent Agent. Living in Kingston upon Thames, and making the daily train journey to London.

In civilian life, Bert was known to be "ferocious" with the people at the Patent Office, - though he was often playing with them, and it was a standing joke in the office,  that he would never tell anybody how old he was. He would bring in a cake each year, that was said to taste like uncooked Christmas Cake, and it would never be on the same day.

Amazingly for a signals officer,  Bert did not like answering the telephone. He had an old fashioned phone in the doorway, and if he answered it, he would block the doorway entirely.

During the second war, Bert joined the Home Guard, serving   with the 36th Middlesex Upper Thames Patrol,  patrolling the river in boats. Bert was a keen horse rider, and regularly rode along the Thames towpaths. On one occasion, both he and his horse fell in!

He lived with his Brother George, and Sister Ada, They never married. The house was said to be piled high with bundles of  papers, all up the stairs.

An insight into Bert's Character can be gained from the following letter:

[1950's letter, sent to George whilst  on holiday]     (Just after they had lost their Sister Aida)

Bert lived to be a grand old age of  93, never really being able to retire fully, he was a regular visitor to work after retirement, otherwise pursuing his passion for tropical fish.

Between the 10th of January 1916 and the end of the war, Bert Odell rose from Lieutenant to Captain, and took part in most of the major battles along with Captain Francis Buckley as follows:

(This web site contains many detailed accounts of these engagements)

The Ypres front at Hill 60

The Battle of the Somme  and detailed account of the  15th September 1916

(where Francis was slightly wounded by shrapnel, but remained on duty).

The Butte de Warlencourt and Hook Sap

The Battle of Arras detailed attack on the Wancourt Tower

The Houthulst Forest (Third Ypres)

The Battles of the Aisne and Lys

Move to The (15th Scottish) Division

Notes on Bert Odell:

Bert was keen on tropical fish.

Bert evidently qualified as a Patent Agent before he was old enough!

Both he and his brother George, lived in the same house after the war, and never married.

Bert's office was piled high with papers, as was his house, (with bundles all up the stairs). The office cleaner had 'given up'.

Bert always said "The French are a Balmy race", anyone can see, a horse is a horse, but they insist on calling it a shovel!

Bert is mentioned in a book called 'My life in the circuits' by Dr Isler: I do not yet have a copy.

Bert did not like answering the telephone. (A wartime signals officer, and telephony patent agent!) He had an old fashioned phone in the doorway, and if he answered it, he would block the doorway entirely.

A standing joke in Bert's office, was that he would never tell anybody how old he was. He would bring in a cake each year, that was said to taste like uncooked Christmas Cake, and it would never be on the same day.

Captain Odell told the story of how on one occasion, he was  in the bottom of  a wet muddy hole trying to fix some kind of pump. He called out to a man in shiny boots to help him. The man (obviously assumed that Odell was from the ranks due to his location) said that he was an N.C.O., and didn't go down holes!  I can imagine that he got rather muddy, very quickly after that.

Bert  served on an Army tribunal, and a man was executed. - Bert always said that they should never have shot him!      I have no details of this; does anybody know how to look it up?

Bert was Chairman of the London 'Spiritualist Society' for many years.

His brother George Odell joined the G.P.O. again after the war and rose to be 'Director of Contracts'.

 

1917---------------------85 years----------------2002

Captain Bert Odell MC + Bar is seen here with his men in 1917, his cuff rank jacket was obviously kept for best, and only later relegated for every day use as he bought replacement, new jackets. The same jacket  still exists in my collection, and indeed started me off on this research. The Captain Stars have been added, plus the 15th Scottish Division tartan triangle added to the 'Signallers Brassard'

Link to Uniforms page

Sources:                

                    50^th (Northumbrian) Signal Company Royal Engineers, War Diary.

                    50^th (Northumbrian) Division Brigade Records.

                    15^th (Scottish) Divisional Signal Company Royal Engineers, War Diary.

                    'History of the 50th Division'  by Everard Wyrell

                    'History of the 7th Northumberland Fusiliers'  by Captain Francis Buckley

                     'Q.6.a AND OTHER PLACES'  by Captain Francis Buckley.

(a friend and comrade of A. E. Odell in the 7^th N.F).

                    'Into Battle'  by John Glubb  (Glubb Pasher)

With help, encouragement, and the generous loan of personal letters and papers,

from Mr Chris Odell, Albert Odell’s Nephew.

WO 95 2822*

WO 95 2826

WO 95 2827*

WO 95 1928

PRO Kew

50^th (Northumbrian) Division.

Comprising three Infantry Brigades:

149^th Infantry Brigade  (Northumberland)

150^th Infantry Brigade (York and Durham)

                                        151^st Infantry Brigade (Durham Light Infantry)

The 149^th Infantry Brigade

Comprising four Battalions:                          

4^th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers

5^th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers

6^th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers

7^th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers

149^th Machine Gun Corps

149^th Trench Mortar Battery

7^th Field Company Royal Engineers

446^th Field Company Royal Engineers

447^th Field Company Royal Engineers

50^th (Northumbrian) Divisional Signal Company R.E. 

 

Medals Bert  was entitled too. (not his originals)                 

Goto Captain Francis Buckley (Odell's Friend) from the 7th N.F. who wrote the official History of the regiment

   LINKS

The Ypres front at Hill 60

The Battle of the Somme  and detailed account of the  15th September 1916

The Butte de Warlencourt and Hook Sap

The Battle of Arras detailed attack on the Wancourt Tower

The Houthulst Forest (Third Ypres)

The Battles of the Aisne and Lys

Move to The (15th Scottish) Division

Link to Uniforms page

Letters:

Letter on 28.4.16 describing being machine-gunned whilst supervising 5' buries at night, and the phenomenon of Artillery shells  Written by Bert to his Brother George

Letter stared on 25.4.17 and finished 16.5.117 describing a Barrage and Zero Hour

Letter to George Odell 20th Feb 1918 re MC and Photo of George

Letter to George about German Advance on the Aisne

1950's letter, sent to George whilst  on holiday

  Click here for  7th NFshort history of the Regiment,  see personalities and links to detailed accounts of important actions.

Click here for Captain Francis Buckley  7th N.F. He edited the official history

Learn about Signallers in the great War

Signals Equipment, see and learn about Great War telephony

Return to top of page

Guy Smith     e mail:    guy@trenchmap.com