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Key dates over May 1915

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Lives lost on this day: 0

4th May 1915 - 1st Bn Men in Worcester Infirmary

Rolling casualty count: 1076

1st Batt: In Section 1. Relieved about 8.30pm by the 2/Devons; 2nd Batt: In trenches at Cuinchy, very little sniping. Several ‘phizz bangs’ came over doing no damage. German mine-head reported about 50 yds in front of centre of right Coy (D). Permission obtained from Brigade HQ to shell it. The front line trench was cleared for this purpose. The Howitzer Battery fired 25 rounds at it in the morning but without effect. In the afternoon they fired another 25 rounds at the mine-head and obtained 4 direct hits. The night passed quietly; 3rd Batt: Relieved R.I. Rifles in trenches, E. of Dickebush;

1st Worcester at the Infirmary: Among the wounded soldiers who arrived at the Infirmary was No. 15500 Private Turner, of the 1st Battalion Worcestershire Regiment. Nineteen men arrived altogether, and were conveyed to the Infirmary by motor, assisted by members of the Worcester (No. 3) Voluntary Aid Detachment, under their Commandant (Mr. R.J.HIlliar), Dr. Campbell Highet (Medical Officer), Quartermaster Waite, and Mr. Thompson (Pharmacist);

New Lavatories: Dear Sir, in reply to the letter appearing in your issue of Friday last, commenting on my remarks re the new lavatory, I wish your correspondent had read my letter properly, as I did not mention anything about “public conveniences,” and I did not say “it is disgraceful for the places to be labelled ‘men’ and ‘women.’” What I said was “it was a disgraceful slur on the inhabitants that the words ‘men’ and ‘women’ lavatories should be place there instead of ‘gentlemen’s’ and ‘ladies’ ‘ lavatories.” I do not know whether your correspondent holds a “brief” for the architect, or the Committee, but if he does, I wish to ask the Architect, through him, whether on receiving his appointment he addressed the Committee as “men,” also whether the Committee address them as such, or as “ladies and gentlemen.” As with regard to his remarks that “it would be more disgraceful were there separate places for the nobility, gentry, and the hoi polloi,” he is quite running away for the theory of my letter. STILL DISGUSTED;

At the Dardanelles: Sir, -if you think the following excerpt from a letter received from a surgeon in the Mediterranean, be worth the hospitality of your columns, and you can spare room for it, please give it room. It sheds a lurid side-light upon one of the inevitable results of the fierce fighting at the Dardanelles: “No. 15, General Hospital, Special Expeditionary Force: It is 9pm, and I have just returned to my tent. Last Thursday we got a big convoy of wounded from the Dardanelles, and more came the following two days, and we were quickly full up. We have all been hard at work ever since. Amputations, openings of the knee joints, trephinings of skull, and….All the surgery is necessarily rapid….Have had so much to do that I have not been able to leave the Hospital since last Wednesday, but as we live in tents I do not suffer from lack of fresh air…Cannot write more now, we have to visit my ward before turning in. For the last week getting to bed has varied from midnight to 2.30 am…” I refrain from wearying your readers with further extracts from the letter. T. Bates, Sen.

Information researched by Sue Redding