Here is just a list of the open questions:

How did the Bell come into the possession of Captain West?

What motivated him to give it as a present to Temperly Elliott in Nenthead?

The bell was mentioned in a newspaper article we found. Were there any more articles?

 

Possible explanations:

As mentioned earlier I don´t think the mysterious Captain West was present at or involved in the action. Otherwise the mistakes on the inscription of the brass plate would not have happened. So it makes no sense to really retrieve his history in detail. Besides that the name "West" is an absolute show Stopper in googling anything related to seafaring topics. Millions of hits are than related of course to the wind direction!!!!

It is highly likely in my opinion that the bell was among the many memorabilia taken by the crew of the HMS Cadmus. Since it is only a small item it must have been possible for a crew member to maybe take it into his private possession. 

Captain West is described in Richie´s book as a country cottage owner from Tyneside.

Newcastle is a port and there must have been some connection between the person who took the bell and Captain West who was probably given the bell sometime later.

Captain West must have been a regular at the Pub with Richie being able to remember him. Interesting that the two thefts of the Big ship´s Bell took place in 1933/1934. It must have been around that time or a little later that Captain West presented the Bell. The News about the theft must have been global news. Maybe it was discussed in the Pub and Captain West than decided to have the Bell in a public place.

 

It was fun collecting all the information I have so far about the Bell. It gave me an interesting deep dive into a fascinating chapter of WWI.

It is however sat to see that young men who played a football match on one day had to fight against each other the following day and their whole life was turned upside down by something far beyond their control.