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Key dates over April 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

Lives lost on this day: 19

9th April 1916 - 9th Battalion suffer more casualties

Rolling Casualty Count: 2894

At the Front:

1st Batt: Weather turned wet and cold., Three men were killed and 3 wounded.

2nd Batt: A Coy heavily trench-mortared am and it took the Howitzers 20minutes to retaliate. A mine went up in front of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers but little damage.

4th Batt: Divine Service Parade. Major Kerans left for Florecourt.

9th Batt: Advanced at 4.00am and soon met with fire and green flares which showed their position. Men attacked and fell back until their ammunition was exhausted. Daylight revealed the ground littered with bodies and wounded men.

On the Home Front:

New Call to single men - Youths of 18 to train

A new call to both Group men and conscripts will be published during the week-end. The call affects single men-attested and unattested-of the age of 18 years and commencing May 10th they will be required to report for training and service at home until they attain the age of 19 years.

Hereford mother and her conscript son - At Hereford, on Monday, Alice Owens of Holme Lacy was summoned for unlawfully making statements intended to prejudice the training, discipline and administration of any of His Majesty's forces. The defendant said she supposed she was guilty, but had done it in ignorance. The evidence showed that the defendant, together with her son, Charles Owens, went to the recruiting office and produced her son's army form which called on him to report for service. When he was asked to the sign the form, the defendant interrupted saying he should not sign anything until he had written to his father who was in America. The young man, who was 21, confirmed that he wanted to join the Royal Garrison Artillery. Capt Field tried to reason with the woman before sending her to Major MacDonald who explained that Owen had been called up under the Military Service Act. The young man refused to sign his papers, however the witness felt that he would have done so if it had not been for the influence of his mother, who stated that the military authorities were wrong to take him. Defendant was fined £10

Information researched by the WW100 team.