Petty Officer Harry Charles Sell, son of Henry Lord Sell and Emily Jane Sell (nee Bailey), of Kempton Villa, 25 Cromwell Road, Luton, was a member of the Royal Naval Air Service's Armoured Cars, Russian Legion, stationed in an ice-bound Arctic harbour with its accompanying winter storms.

PO Sell, who was a clerk in the Town Clerk's office at Luton prior to enlisting in November 1915, wrote home to his parents on Christmas Day. He said: "Ever since we left ----- on December 3rd, we have been on board. For more than a week we have had to wait in a bay off the North of ------. Last week we started again, and we are now in a harbour somewhere in the Arctic Ocean. Any further information as to my whereabouts it is impossible for me to give you. (We now know his location to be Murmansk in Russia. Harry would have been part of the RNAS Armoured Cars Division, commanded by Oliver Locker-Lampson).

"The scenery is glorious. During our stay in the bay I mentioned I twice saw the Northern Lights. Once it was absolutely splendid; the snow-clad cliffs practically all round us; the sea a mass of huge pieces of ice. The ship was covered with snow, and above all this the lights showed right across the sky like a huge rainbow - a beautiful pale green colour. It was a sight worth going a long way to see.

"We had a terribly rough voyage. I had a day or two sickness, but got over it much quicker than a good many chaps. I begin to feel fit now.

"It does seem a long time saw anything of civilisation. I the harbour where we now are stationed there is a small town. It is just such a place as you might imagine a North Canadian settlement to look like in mid-winter. Practically all round us the towering cliffs, covered with snow, and dotted about are houses - large brown huts. We have only just arrived and, of course, have not been allowed to land."

With his letter PO Sell sent a copy of the ship's newspaper, "the official organ of the of the R.N.A.S. Russian Expedition". That recorded, among other things, a message from King George V and the fact that the officers and men had established a record on the second Sunday in December by singing the National Anthem farther north than any British field force on active service had done before.

Writing in his newspaper, the Editor wrote that the voyage to Russia in a great gale was an experience that was reserved only for a few of the teeming millions of the world, and few fully realised the seriousness of the position. It had been a matter of touch and go - two lifeboats were blown away, the latrines and newly constructed cookhouse were completely demolished, while a porthole forward was smashed and the hold flooded to a considerable depth.

PO Sell and his comrades were the only British troops placed at the disposal of his Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Russia" in Russia. The numerically small force also included men from New Zealand, Australia, Canada and South Africa.

Harry Sell's military record shows he served with HMS President II. His father was Luton's school attendance officer.

[The Luton News: Thursday, March 9th, 1916]