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Key dates over April 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

Lives lost on this day: 4

12th April 1917 - Youth dies in Malvern after exertion

Rolling casualty count: 5804

War Front: 1st Batt: Patrols went out to Gouzencourt in the early am.

2/7th Batt: Major green took command of the Batt as Lt Col Dorman went to Brigade.

4th Batt: Batt marched to Ronville via Dainville where dinner was served , and then through Arras. At 6.30pm Batt moved down Cambrai Rd to Feuchy Chapel cross roads where guides met them to take them to the trenches south of Monchy Le Preux just east of the village of La Bergere.

9th Batt: The enemy had retired so the advance continued. Men bivouacked at 7 pm near Bimt al Harsa.

10th Batt: Batt in practice attack before the army Commander.

SMD RFA: The 121st Infantry Brigade pushed forward to No 12 Copse. At 9.30, D Coy covered the advance. The Copse was occupied successfully with little resistance. The 7th Lancs Fusiliers did not take a telephone with them so no news got back to HQ until 3.am.

Home Front: CAPT. LEEFE ROBINSON V.C. – ZEPP DESTROYER REPORTED MISSING – The Evening News, London, learns officially that Capt. Leefe-Robinson V.C. the first airman to bring down a Zeppelin in England has been reported missing on the 6th of this month. Capt. Leefe Robinson, Worcestershire Regiment and R.F.C., was awarded the Victoria Cross for bringing down a Zeppelin in September 1916.

WORCESTER YOUTH’S DEATH – Heart Failure in Malvern Street – On Easter Monday, Harvey Hobbs, aged 17, a tinplate labourer of Nash’s Passage, New Street, Worcester, died suddenly at Malvern. He had visited the town with other companions to spend a holiday. He had walked to the top of the Worcestershire Beacon and about the district. At 2pm he was going up Church Street, and when near the Post Office he fell on his face on the footpath. He did not speak and appeared to be dead. He was removed to hospital and was pronounced life extinct.

Information researched by The Worcestershire World War 100 team