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Key dates over December 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: 0

12th December 1916 - German Chancellor, Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, sends a peace note to the Allies offering to open talks in a neutral country

Rolling casualty count: 5090

2nd Batt: C Coy got stuck in the mud during the relief and Coy Commander 2nd Lt Jones was wounded. Barr HQ was on the Bethune Road.

2/7th Batt: batt moved off for Hedauville and took over billets from 2.4th Oxfords.

2/8th Batt: batt moved to billets in Warennes where men were allowed to rest.

9th Batt: Batt marched forward to Sinn Abtar and bivouacked on low ground in the Dujaila Depression.

Yeomanry/Cavalry: Regiment camped on the edge of a narrow swamp beyond which were the camel lines. Thousands of camels were destined to supply the Desert Column until the railway could be built.

Home Front:

Worcester Amusements – Theatre Royal – Twice each evening this week Mr Mathew H Glenville and his company are playing “The Soldier Priest” a wholesome melodrama, with emotional thrills, pathos and humour, all agreeably blended. The central character is an Irish priest. His nephew is being fleeced by a German Spy and his oily mannered accomplice. Because he spoils their schemes they seek to compromise him. He gives one of them such a lusty clout on the head that he believes he has killed him. War is declared and he joins the Army as a Tommy. Mr Glenville as the Parish priest, is at the head of a capable company.

Herb Growing in Malvern – With the object of promoting the growing of herbs in Malvern during the progress of the War, a meeting was held at the Public Library. Mrs Devonshire Ellis (speaker) said that Britain supplied nearly all the medicinal herbs for use in this country, but now in consequence of the War there was a great shortage of drugs. Since the formation of the Herb Growing Association had instructed its members how to prepare herbs for the market and had also stimulated the collection of wild herbs amongst school children, thus performing a patriotic and an educational work.

Information researched by The Worcestershire World War 100 team