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Key dates over July 1915

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Lives lost on this day: 3

4th July 1915 - The Great Thunderstorm

Rolling casualty count: 1580

1st Batt: In billets at Sailly cross roads. Route march 7 miles. ; 2nd Batt:Relieved 2/HLI in Givenchy sub-section B2. Relief commenced 6.15pm, completed 9pm. Lt. T.N. Wilmot joined; 3rd Batt: In Bivouac near Busseboom; Royal Field Artillery: Le Mont Evenic: Training.

The Great Thunderstorm: Redditch Girl Injured by Lightning: During the thunderstorm at Redditch on Sunday evening, the residence of Mr. Charles Terry, South Crest, Redditch, was struck. The slates on the roof were dislodged and a domestic servant, named Miss Gertrude May Rouse, aged 22, a native of Erdington near Chipping Campden , sustained injuries. She was in her bedroom dressing for church, and was struck on the right side. Her shoes were torn off, and a large hole burnt in one of her stockings. Her raincoat was undamaged, but the sleeves of her blouse were torn off. The full extent of her injuries is not yet known, but Dr. Stevenson considered she had had a marvellous escape from death. She was badly burnt about the thigh and ankle. Two horses were killed in a field at Abott’s Morton, and telegraphic and telephone communication was interrupted in every direction. The Redditch Rifle Corps who were holding their first weekend camp in Beoley Park, will not readily forget their experience;

More Soldiers for Malvern: Malvern Common where the 13th Gloucesters and 16th Warwicks were encamped for several weeks, now looks strangely deserted. On Wednesday evening the officers’ mess tent on the ladies’ golf course was still standing, and below the railway line there were two or three sheds with roofs of corrugated iron. The Y.M.C.A. structure which served the Warwicks so admirably was approaching the last stages of demolition, and a little lower down, on the other side of the road, were sundry relicts of the canteen. Still lower, where the Warwicks’ hospital tent once stood, three or four ornamental trees remain, as a memento of departed soldiers’ skill in landscape gardening. Malvern people will be glad to learn that the Common is not to be untenanted for long. We understand that the 3rd Worcester and Gloucester Brigade, numbering some 3,000 men, will go under canvas there, and that the Brigade includes the 3/7th and 3/8th Worcesters and the 4th and 6th Gloucesters. This means that the Soldiers’ Club Committee will have to prepare for another spell of strenuous work.

Information researched by Sue Redding