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Key dates over May 1915

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Lives lost on this day: 4

13th May 1915 - Account of Lt. Tristram's death at Neuve Chapelle

Rolling casualty count: 1178

1st Batt: In billets Laventie. All deficiencies made up and the battalion ready for action again; 2nd Batt: (12/13/14 May)Remained in billets near Windy Corner. German shells coming over at intervals each day. Our guns bombarded German trenches during these 3 days with considerable success, destroying the barbed wire in many places;3rd Batt: In billets at Dickebush;

Sapper Jack Hayes, of the 172nd Company Royal Engineers, who was called up as a Reservist of the 3rd Worcestershires at the outbreak of the War, has just had conferred upon him the Russian medal of the Order of St. George for bravery in the field, and is one of the first of the English troops to receive this distinction. ..Sapper Hayes says, “ You will be pleased to know I have got a medal. I saved an officer’s life who had been gassed by carbon monoxide in one of our saps after an explosion. I succeeded in dragging him to breathable air before I got gassed myself;”

Appeal for Cricket Sets: In our issue on Wednesday appeared a letter from Drivers J. Fletcher and P.W.Robbins for a cricket set and mouth organs. These articles are being sent by Mrs. Peake, wife of the Officer Commanding the Battalion. Doubtless others would be gracefully received, and, if any readers care to send them, Mrs. Peake will have them despatched to the front;

Corporal’s Tribute to Dead Officer: Lieutenant J.R. Tristram, 1st Battalion, Worcs Regt, was killed at Neuve Chapelle. An account of his death has been written by Cpl. Newey of the same battalion, to his parents. Cpl. Newey says: “I had the misfortune to fall into a brook the first night, but before we finished I had to take a message back after the last attack. I crawled on my elbows and stomach for about twenty yards until I got fed up, and there was a ditch which went all the way I had to go. It had about four feet of water and a few dead Germans in it. But I didn’t mind. In I went and waded back to where I had to go. I got back safely, having done what was asked of me, but I am sorry to say the lieutenant who sent me got killed a few minutes after I started. The captain in charge of my company was wounded, and this lieutenant had to take charge. He was only a little chap, but little and good. He led the company like a little hero, and was one of our best officers who lost their lives. His name, as I daresay you have seen in the papers, is Lieutenant Tristram.”

Information researched by Sue Redding