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Key dates over January 1916

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Lives lost on this day: 2

13th January 1916 - Board of Guardians decision on workhouse funerals

Rolling Casualty Count:2696

At the Front:

1st Batt: Still in trenches and heavy shelling.

10th Batt: Still in trenches

On the Home Front:

Private George Richmond Grubb, of the 8th Battalion, Worcs Regiment (only son of Mr. and Mrs. Richmond Grubb) met his death on January 3rd, he was aged 22, and enlisted in September, 1914…His commanding officer, Lt-Col. Peake wrote, “ I very much regret to have to inform you that your son was killed on January 3rd. He was sheltering in a dug-out during a heavy bombardment with many others, when a shell hit it, killing him and six others instantaneously, collapsing the dug-out on top of them, it was found impossible to recover the bodies, so the Chaplain came to the spot and read the funeral service over them. I deeply sympathise with you in your loss, and the Battalion has lost an excellent soldier in your son.”

Worcester Private Killed: Pte. William Banks, 4th Worcs has died from dysentery. He was a married man and lived on Morton Square, Worcester. He was in the 4th Battalion when war broke out and came home from India with them. Going to the Dardanelles in the spring he kept in good health until the end of the year, when he was seized with dysentery and sent home, where he died in Southampton.

King’s School Successes: Philip D. Birch, King’s Scholar, won the 4th place for Indian Cadetships in the recent Army examination, and Frederick W.S.Watkins took the 45th place in the same list.

At a meeting of the Worcester Guardians, it was decided to write to the funeral contractors as to the propriety of taking the bodies of the persons who died in the Workhouse direct from the Workhouse to the Cemetery, the Rev. G.F. Hooper saying that they felt that the burials ought to be done more decently. In his yearly report the Master stated that the officers were doing their best under the difficult conditions. The Infirmary was full, and the nursing arrangements were very unsettled because of the changes in the staff. A letter was read from the Superintendent Nurse to the Matron saying that she had not sufficient clothing to change the patients. Some of them had not had their stockings changed for weeks. The Board ordered that the articles necessary should be supplied at once. The thanks of the Board were given to Ald. and Mrs. Carlton for inviting the Cottage Homes children to the pantomime, and for presenting each child with a shilling.