Skip to navigation | Skip to content | Skip to footer

Key dates over February 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

Lives lost on this day: 2

9th February 1917 - Russell and Dorrell's is 120 years old

Rolling casualty count: 5427

War Front: 2nd Batt: Batt supplied permanent working parties to serve under the Tunnelling Coy.

9th Batt: B Coy attacked another Turkish post led by Capt HCK Bidlake, who was only 19 years old, and charged across the open while bombers attacked the enemy. Two more posts were captured complete with ammunition and stores. There were 4 casualties.

10th Batt: Batt relieved the 8th Glos in the right sector. There was heavy firing on both sides.

Yeomanry/Cavalry: Two deserters turned out to be Algerian soldiers captured by the Germans in France and handed over by the Germans to the Turks to fight.

Home Front: Local Notes – It is interesting to note that there thrive still in the city businesses which were established in the 18th Century. On the death of Mr W Bennett, reference was made to the fact that his business was started by a member of his family considerably more than 100 years ago. The fact that Messrs Russell and Dorrell have removed their wholesale mechanics’ clothing factory from Bank Street to the premises in College Street, erected 70 years ago for Messrs J and F Willis, is a reminder that the firm of Russell and Dorrell is now more than 120 years old.

Soldier’s Cut Throat – Razor Slipped: Worcester Case – At the Infirmary this morning, a soldier, named Thomas Carter, of the Army Service Corps, was admitted with a wound in his throat. The wound was not extensive or serious. The soldier first said that he was shaving himself, and the razor slipped, but later he said that “he had been worried”. He had been at Gloucester and had been transferred to Worcester, where he had been billeted for only a few days. He was rather a timid, nervous and had been sent from Gloucester to Worcester because of “the attitude to him of his comrades”. His home is in London, where he has a wife and six or seven children.

Information researched by The Worcestershire World War 100 team