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Key dates over January 1917

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

11th January 1917 - Sugar in tea shops to be limited

Rolling casualty count: 5186

War Front: 2nd Batt; Coy drill in preparation for night fighting.

4th batt: B Coy moved to hargest to entrain for Corbiein heavy rain. No train arrived until midnight so Batt arrived at 6am. Billets good.

10th Batt: Our artillery active all day and enemy retaliated heavily in Hebuterne causing casualties-2 killed and 12 wounded.. Work was done on revetting and repairing the fire steps also rebuilding the parapets.

Yeomanry/Cavalry: Congratulatory messages received from CO of the Desert Column and the General of Cavalry in Egypt. Gen EA Wiggin held a British Memorial Service in the evening.

Home Front: Guarding Loaf Sugar in Tea-Shops: There is a new restriction in certain tea-shops which, having raised the price of their tea and coffee, now limit the use of lump sugar. It is alleged that customers helped themselves too freely in some cases, and it is suspected that they sometimes abstracted a few lumps for home use. To cope with these supposed depredations the sugar-bowl is now produced only for a few moments when the waitress asks whether one lump or two is needed. In one well-known café where 8d. is charged for a tumbler of café-au-lait and 6d. for a pot of tea, the allowance of two lumps per person is left by the waiter, and when allotting the allowance for a party it is usually now left a couple of lumps short on the supposition that a certain number of people do not take sugar. “It s eaten or taken away if left” is the proprietor’s contention.

Making Way for Younger Man: The Right Rev. Bishop Mylne, of Alvechurch, announces in his Parish Magazine for January that he has tendered his resignation to the Bishop of Worcester, who is seeking a successor. Bishop Mylne will cease to be Rector within a few weeks of Easter. He says that age and illness, public care, and family sorrow have left their mark upon him. He feels that he ought to make way for a younger and more capable Rector to work in the parish.

Twelve Boys at Worcester Police Court: There was further evidence at the City Children’s Court today of the increase in the number of juvenile offences in the city, which has been a marked feature of the police court proceedings for some months’ past. The number of defendants was larger than usual, there being a dozen in all. Of these four were charged with wilful damage at Barker’s Brickyard, and the remainder for breaking into a warehouse in the Hylton Road. They all pleaded not guilty to damaging a shutter at the brickyard to the extent of 10s…Asked to plead, Thomas Charles Christian (13) said: “I am not guilty of housebreaking.” The Chief Constable: “You are not charged with housebreaking.” The Clerk: “He’s evidently been reading up the law.”

National Egg Collection: The total number of eggs collected at the Guildhall in connection with the above for just over 12 months is 38,000. Most of these have been sent to France, whilst some have been given to Battenhall Hospital, the Infirmary, and Norton Barracks Hospital. Kempsey has sent the most eggs, Mrs. Douglas, of Cleeve Court, has worked hard in getting 5,732, Inkberrow comes next with 4,516.

City Police Court: Deserter: Leonard Davis (38), no fixed abode, was charged with being an absentee from the South Wales Borderers. P.C. Harrington said that when he arrested prisoner he said, “I have had a good run.” He had been absent since September. Prisoner said that he had nine children at home, and he thought the single chaps should go first. He was remanded to await an escort.

Information researched by The Worcestershire World War 100 team