Obituary in The Times, Monday 13 May 2024.
John Bell’s time as the President of 617 Squadron Association is mentioned in The Times obituary above. He will be remembered by many who attended the wreath-laying ceremony which takes place every year in Woodall Spa on the May Sunday closest to the date in May 1943 on which the Dams Raid took place. He would stand, as the obituary above says, bolt upright as he said the immortal words of Laurence Binyon:
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
And the last four words which came from him were then echoed by everyone else present: ‘We will remember them.’