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Key dates over October 1915

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Lives lost on this day: 5

18th October 1915 - Jeanette Madden, wife of a soldier, blind drunk whilst in charge of two children under seven.

18-Oct-15

Rolling Casualty Count: 2505

On the front:

2nd Worcestershire relieve the 2nd Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in the Brigade front line: bombing day and night. 11th Worcestershire march to Framerville and Vauvillers. 4th Batt. Heavy shelling all day, rescued the body of 2/Lieut Greenaway was recovered.

On the Home Front:

Bromyard. Drunk. At the Bromyard Police Court on Friday, before Mr E Powell and Mr A Newbold, Jeanette Madden, wife of a soldier, living in the Whitehouses, was charged with bind drunk in Sheep Street whilst ins charge of two children under the age of seven. PC Prosser stated that he saw the defendant drunk. Her two children were hanging onto her dress. He told her that was drunk, and that he would have to lock her up. She replied 'You lock me up; it would take twenty such as you'. He got her to the police station with assistance. The police had had numerous complaints about her and had asked the publicans not to supply her with drink but that she acquired this by private means. They advised her to take the pledge and fined her 5s, but if she came before them again she would be sent to gaol without the option of a fine.

A concert will be held at Croome Court on Tuesday October 25th in aid of Red Cross Funds. Tickets £1 1s and 10s 6d to be obtained from the Countess of Coventry, Croome Court, Severn Stoke, Viscountess Deerhurst, Pirton Court, Worcester and Deighton's, High Street, Worcester.

International events:

The execution of Miss Cavell. Resolve to stay at her post. Miss Cavell is the daughter of Mrs Cavell, widow of Rev. Frederick Cavell, for 40 years vicar of Swardeston, Norfolk. Miss Cavell was trained as a nurse at the London Hospital and on the opening of the L'Ecole Belge d'Infirmieres Diplomees, Brussels in 1907 was appointed matron. A Heroine's Death. The execution ground was a garden or yard in Brussels surrounded by a wall. A German firing squad of six men and an officer were drawn up in the garden and awaited their victim. She was led in by soldiers from a house nearby, blindfolded by a black scarf. Up to this minute the woman though deadly white, had stepped out bravely to meet her fate. But before the rifle party she tottered and fell against the wall against where she was to have been shot. The officer walked to her: she lay prone on the ground motionless. The officer then drew a service revolver from his belt. Took steady aim from his knee and shot the woman through the head as she lay on the floor. The officer quietly returned the revolver to its case and ordered the soldiers to carry the body to the house, where charge was taken of it by a Belgian woman. The execution of Miss Cavell has shocked the whole Belgian community who speak of it as the bloodiest act of the whole war.