Skip to navigation | Skip to content | Skip to footer

Key dates over September 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: 6

29th September 1917 - German Gotha bombers start night raids on London

Rolling casualty count: 7675

War Front:

2nd Batt: Batt resting in good billets.

1/8th Batt: The following decorations were awarded to the following: Bar to Military Cross-2nd Lt SH Wilkes DCM –Sergt WH Wheeler and Pte F Taylor,

Military Cross-2nd Lt JR Willis, Military Medal to Sergt RH Warren, L Sergt F Birch,

Corp H Norledge and Corp AN Turner and L Corp AT Smith and also to Ptes CA Clay, R Whiley, A Corbett, W Williams and CF Rice.

2/8th Batt: Heavy shelling in Cauldron trench during the evening. There were 6 casualties and a water tank was destroyed.

Home Front:

News has been received that Lieut. G. Raymond Gabb, second son of Mr. and Mrs. W.H. Gabb, of Beauchamp Court, Worcester, has been wounded. On August 29th he married Miss Grace Olga Holtham, the youngest daughter of Mr. H.W. Holtham, of Battenhall, Worcester. His wife and his father have been to France to see him.

Pte. W. Jauncey, Worcs. Regt., son of Mr. and Mrs. Jauncey, Sandlin, Leigh, has been killed in action. He had been in the Army for about two years and eight months and at the front for nearly two years. He was in his 27th year and previous to enlisting was employed on the farm of Mr. Morris, King’s Hill, Leigh.

As a result of quarrels between members of a gipsy community at Callow End on Thursday, a series of charges of causing grievous bodily harm and assault were heard at Worcester County Magistrates’ Clerk’s Office on Friday and Saturday. One woman is in the Worcester Infirmary suffering from serious injuries, two other women and a man are remanded in custody and one woman with a young baby is released on bail. William Smith, alias Sampson Smith, gipsy, was charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm on Frank Stephans, gipsy. William Smith took a running kick at witness, knocking him down. Mr. Hemming appeared for complainant, who said that Cinderella Davis rolled up her sleeves and challenged his wife to fight. Cinderella Davis, gipsy, was charged with unlawfully and maliciously causing grievous bodily harm to Mizella Stephans, with intent to disable complainant.

Six more of the German officers who escaped from the internment camp at Sutton Bonnington, Nottinghamshire, have been captured. Just before midnight on Thursday four men were seen drinking from a pond in a field near the village of Hickling some miles from Nottingham. A woman saw them by the light of the moon and gave evidence to a farmer who secured the assistance of some special constables and overtook the men. About 7 o’clock on Friday evening two of the runaways were found by a farmer hiding by the bank of a stream near the village of Ruddington, four miles from Nottingham. They wore German naval uniforms and at first declared that they were Spanish sailors, but afterwards admitted that they were refugees from Sutton Bonnington camp. They offered no resistance and asked to be allowed to wash.

Wounded by Shrapnel: Driver Attwood, of London Road, Worcester, has been wounded in the arm by shrapnel and is in hospital at the base. He enlisted at the beginning of 1915 in the R.F.A. (T.F.) and has been in France over 16 months without a leave. In a letter to his parents he says he is going on well and that he had a very narrow escape.

A Hong Kong Volunteer: News has been received that Lieut. Arthur Noel Joseland was killed in South Africa on September 22. He was the second son of the Rev. F.P. Joseland, formerly of Worcester, for the past 30 years resident in China. The Rev. F. P. Joseland is the eldest son of Mr. Alfred Joseland of Worcester. LIeut. Joseland was in business in Hong Kong and came to England to volunteer his services. He has been in the Army for two years.

Information researched by The Worcestershire World War 100 team