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Key dates over May 1917

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Lives lost on this day: 3

10th May 1917 - To combat the German submarine threat, British introduce the convoy system, moving large numbers of merchant ships together under naval protection.

Rolling casualty count: 6342

War Front:

1st Batt: A large working party provided to work on the Fins-Gouzencourt Railway.

2nd Batt: Batt assembled at 9.45pm for night operations, practising advancing in waves in the dark to accustom the men to keeping in touch. After reaching objective, Batt returned to camp at about 2am

3rd Batt: Enemy shelled us most of the day, fire chiefly directed at communication trenches.

4th Batt: Batt practised trench to trench attacks as a brigade. Men also had Respirator drill and baths.

2/7th Batt: Batt relieved by 2/4th Glos without incident and went to Brigade reserves at Attilly.

10th Batt: Batt relieved by 11th NF. Batt entrained at Ypres and returned to St Lawrence Camp.

SMD RFA: Proposed attack under command of 59th Divisional Artillery

Home Front:

To The Editor: Anonymous Letters: Dear Sir, I had the pleasure of seeing in a waste-paper basket this morning one of a series of anonymous postcards. Judging from the effusion of ungrammatical words and sentences required to convey to a worthy fellow-citizen an unasked for opinion of him in general and penned in such a style as would disgrace a child of six, I should recommend the scribe to at once look well after his health, as his actions bear unmistakeably the imprint of creeping paralysis – mental, physical and moral. He accuses a willing (but rejected) person of shirking, etc. How does he know? One thing is certain; the writer of anonymous postcards of such a nature and character is a coward of the slimiest kind. If he dare affix his ignoble name to his calumnies I shall be pleased to do likewise, not until. ANTI-SCAB.

News has been received that Lance-Corporal Sidney William Morcombe of the Worcestershire’s, has been killed in action in France. He was formerly a clerk to Kay and Co., Ltd. and afterwards a leather finisher at Ward and Co. Ltd.’s works at Barbourne. He was a member of St. George’s Church Lads’ Brigade and he joined up a month after war broke out. He had been in France two years and was gassed last summer, from which he recovered.

Bands of Hope: The annual concert and prize giving in connection with the Church Bands of Hope were held in the Public Hall on Tuesday evening. The Dean of Worcester, who presided, emphasised the great importance of Band of Hope work, especially in these days of war and said he considered that all food used in the manufacture of beer was national waste and that if we wished to overcome our German U-boat menace, we should tighten our belts and eat less food.

A meeting of County Food Production Committee was held on Wednesday. The Chairman said that the Cultivations Sub-Committee had considered the request of the Government that they should endeavour to have 40,000 additional acres cultivated with wheat. Mr. Walker said that they wanted to be able to show farmers that they had the power to force the work to be done. He had told one man whose land had gone down to grass in his memory that it ought to be broken up. The proposed allocations were as follows: Bromsgrove and Bromsgrove North 6,000 acres; Droitwich 6,000; Evesham 2,000; Feckenham 3,000; Martley 6,000, Pershore 6,000 with the remainder distributed across the county. Mr. Lander read a communication from the Board of Agriculture stating that further gangs of German prisoners, in batches of from 35 to 40, would soon be available. With regard to the cottage at Evesham required to facilitate the accommodation for further prisoners at Evesham, it was reported that efforts to induce the tenant to leave had failed and it was decided to ask the military to commandeer the premises.