THE French are throwing a big party to honour the gallantry of a First World War Victoria Cross holder from Harrogate.

It will follow the unveiling of a new memorial to 2nd Lt Donald Bell, the only professional footballer to be awarded the VC.

Lt Bell, of the 9th Battalion Green Howards Regiment, who was also a Harrogate school teacher before the war, won the honour after charging a German machine gun post to save the lives of his men in July 1916.

Only days later, he was shot dead as he led a bombing party which repelled a German attack. The spot where he died is named Bell's Redoubt in his honour.

In Contalmaison and other Somme villages, Lt Bell is still a local hero.

Earlier this year, villagers were upset when the memorial at the spot where he was killed in action was removed to make way for a new road.

A new granite memorial will be unveiled on July 9 and local villagers have organised a welcoming party for Lt Bell's relatives, soccer officials and regimental party.

Bernard Senechal, the mayor of Malmaison, said: "Everyone will be turning out to remember Donald Bell and celebrate the life he gave for us."

Two Green Howards buglers will sound The Last Post.

The Professional Footballer's Association, the FA and Football League each gave £2,000 towards the £10,000 raised for the memorial.

But the two clubs in Bradford, where Lt Bell played before the First World War, declined to make a contribution towards the cost of the memorial, a brass cross set in granite.

Lt Bell was a school teacher in Harrogate. He married Rhoda, his sweetheart only a month before he was killed.

His VC and steel helmet, with a bullet hole in it, is on display in the Green Howards Museum in Richmond.

Bradford City Council remembered him and other local men who won VCs with a stained glass window in the town hall last year.

picture- Lt Donald Bell: memorial to First World War hero