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Key dates over July 1917

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Lives lost on this day: 72

31st July 1917 - Third Battle of Ypres begins, popularly known as Passchendaele. Fighting continues until 10 November.

Rolling casualty count: 6918

War Front:

1st Batt: The attack commenced at 3.50am when the Batt attacked behind a creeping barrage of shrapnel. Ignorance Trench and support were captured with little opposition and 41 prisoners were taken from the tunnel under the Ypres-Menin Road. The weather was too cloudy for aeroplane help. The ground was very cut up by our barrage but B and C Coys passed through James Trench on the edge of Chateau Wood. Communication Trenches were cleared and B Coy started to dig on the forward slope of Bellewarde Ridge overlooking Westhoek. D Coy was withdrawn to act as stretcher bearers. Tanks assisted in attacking the Green Line.

HQ moved to the old German concrete dug-out in Jabber Drive. One machine gun was captured.

70 prisoners were captured, 3 officers and 22 other ranks were killed, 5 officers and 157 other ranks were wounded and missing 10 officers and 49 other ranks.

2nd Batt: A billeting party left by early train to Dunkerques. Batt, less A Coy, marched at 2.30pm to Longpre and after tea entrained for Dunkerques

4th Batt: There was an inspection of the Batt in fighting order by the CO.

1/8th Batt: Batt moved forward to Camp CI and the transport moved to the adjoining field.

2/8th Batt: There was a training trench to trench attack on the Eringhem area.

Yeomanry/Cavalry: The regiment was ordered to return to the valley to replace a regiment thinned by sickness

Home Front:

The Black Wart: The hundreds of local gardeners who have been tilling their private gardens or allotments with such enthusiasm this year will learn with some concern that disease in a rather bad form is prevalent in some parts of the city. This is not the ordinary disease, to prevent which there has been so much spraying – that is rare, although it has been notified in the city – but the present outbreak is that known as the “black wart.” This is a highly contagious fungus, which, starting at the base of the haulm, rapidly proceeds downwards to the tubers. It is hoped that remedial measures will be taken at once, because every day of the official delay the disease is gaining ground.

Worcester Chaplain’s Illness: The Rev. G.A. Studdert Kennedy, Vicar of St. Paul’s, Worcester, who has been acting as a Chaplain on the Western Front, is laid up at Birmingham with trench fever.

Finding is not Keeping: Lydia Ballard (40), 33, Carden Street, was charged with the larceny of a £1 Treasury note, the property of Clifford Hillman, 20, Boughton Street, St. John’s; and Emma Roberts (33), 34, Carden Street, and Jenny Hanks (33), 37, Carden Street, were charged with receiving 6s. 9d. each of the £1. Clifford Hillman said that on the 20th of July he had been pea-picking and when he got by Boughton Park he missed the note. He went back and met the three defendants. He asked them and they said “No.” Roberts said prosecutor started laughing and they did not know whether he had really lost a note. D.S. Penlington said that he had received 6s.6d. from Ballard and 13s.6d. from the other defendants. The Bench fined each defendant 10s. Defendants, whose husbands are soldiers (Ballard’s husband having been killed), said that they could not pay the fine. The Bench, however, gave them a fortnight in which to pay it.

Information researched by The Worcestershire World War 100 team