In the six hour long air raid on Bristol early in December last Derrick Belfall took a message regardless of his own safety right through the worst danger area of the city with bombs dropping all around him. He got through with his message and he got back, his hands torn and bleeding. When told to go and rest, he said “No thanks”; please let me have a stirrup pump, I want to put out a fire that I passed down the road.
They told Derrick he was too exhausted to go out again, but the lad took a pump, slipped quietly out and succeeded by himself in getting the fire under control. A little later he rescued a baby from a blazing house.
He reported back at his post and found that telephonic communications had broken down, An urgent message had to be got through. Without a moment’s hesitation Derrick volunteered to take it. Out he went with enemy raiders overhead dropping bombs all along the route. He reached the Central Police Headquarters.
And then a bomb struck him down. He was rushed to hospital dying “Messenger Belfall reporting – I’ve delivered my message,” he murmured. That was his last breath. Derrick Cecil Belfall died on active service aged 14 years 11 months.
A little more than a year later, Derrick’s story reached our shores in the form of an editorial in Boy’s Life magazine from founder and Chief Scout Executive James E West:
It wasn’t just the Scout skills that made “Boy Scouts” ideal for these roles in civil defense during WWII, it was also the ideals they held dear, the Scout Oath and Scout Law. Those ideals are still greatly needed today. Thank you for all you do.
