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Key dates over May 1917

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Lives lost on this day: 1

25th May 1917 - First daylight aeroplane raid on Britain by German Gotha bombers

Rolling casualty count: 6474

War Front:

1st Batt: Batt training in trench to trench attacks with machine guns co-operating.

2nd Batt: Early am parade under Platoon CO, Armourer`s inspection and general inspection. Draft of 2 officers and 40 other ranks arrived in the evening.

4th Batt: Men cleaning rifles and equipment. 50% of officers allowed a 4 hour pass to Arras. The following men have been mentioned in despatches in the London Gazette on May 23rd: Lt Col ETJ Kerans, 2Lt C C Felix, 2Lt Tyras, 9077 BEM Morgan and 10270 Reg QM G Samson.

10th Batt: Our artillery very active. The enemy heavy shelling battery is behind the wood. Two raiding parties under 2Lt Luckman and 2Lt Froggatt, each of 11 men, entered Nag`s Nose on the side of the crater. The crater was rushed and 2 prisoners taken. The rest of the post was killed and the raiders returned with no casualties.

Home Front:

The many friends of Captain Knight-Coutis in Evesham and district will be delighted to hear that he has been awarded the Military Cross. This is not we believe, yet officially announced, but he has received the ribbon at the front, and it is expected that he will be presented with the Cross when he is next on leave. Captain Knight-Coutis was Science Master at the Evesham Grammar School when the War broke out. He volunteered, but was rejected for varicose veins, and underwent an operation before he was passed as fit…He is in the Army Field Artillery, and he has been in a lot of very hard fighting, including the Battle of the Somme, Vimy Ridge, etc.

Empire Day at Red Hill School: At Red Hill school on Thursday morning, Canon Southwell attended and addressed the girls, and four of the girls gave speeches on the watchwork of the Empire League – “Duty,” “Responsibility,” “Sympathy,” and “Self Sacrifice.” The children made a collection on behalf of the Mayor’s fund for providing homes for Worcestershire soldiers and sailors, and it amounted to £1-15s.- 8d.

A Worcester Bugler: Mr. and Mrs. H. Griffin, 3, Bath Road, have received a letter from their son, Bugler Walter Griffin, who is in hospital in Salonika, in which he says: “We went over the top and got something for our trouble. A bomb burst a yard in front of me and blew me out of the trench, and landed me 12 yards or more down a bank. I was bruised rather badly, and have a cut over my left eye, but hope to be soon well again.”

Third Less Beer for Everybody: The beer trade has put into operation a scheme of beer rationing. The brewers, who can brew only a third of last year’s output, are rationing the bottlers, the bottlers are rationing the off-licence holders, and the off-licence holders are rationing the public. “We are getting only a third of the old supply from the bottling firms,” said the manager of a South London store. “Orders from old retail customers are uniformly cut down to one third of the usual quantity, and no orders are accepted from new customers. “We have not a single bottle of beer in our store today and do not hope to get any before next week.”

Mr. Martin Harvey as “David Garrick:” Mr. Martin Harvey is to appear at the Theatre Royal, Worcester on Tuesday afternoon next as “David Garrick.” The romantic colour of the leading role and the charm of the story is brought out in full by the gifted Mr. Harvey. The title role gives him opportunities of a brilliant kind – opportunities in which he utilises that wonderful histrionic note of self-immolation which he has struck so sonorously on many occasions and his “David Garrick” has rapidly come to be regarded as one of his best and most appealing assumptions.