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This is a website to inform and interest a new public in the heroic actions by Captain Edward Bell, later General Bell, for his exploits during the Crimea campaign of 1854. He was the first officer VC for capturing a Russian field gun by threatening its driver with an unloaded pistol at the Battle of the Alma River on 20 September 1854.

Czar Nicholas of Russia had occupied the Crimea, a pivotal peninsula in the Black Sea, and the British and French forces repelled the invaders after a series of battles, including the Charge of the Light Brigade and the Battle of the Alma River.

These actions have a particular salience as Russian forces once again seek to control the Black Sea after their invasion of Ukrainian territory.