13th September 1917 - Worcester County Tribunals

Rolling casualty count: 7502

War Front:

2nd Batt: Batt took part in another practice attack, which was watched by Gen Plumer. He held a conference with officers afterwards.

3rd Batt: Batt in a very good training area. There were many and varied recreations arranged, e.g. boxing, football and concerts etc. The weather was extremely fine throughout our stay.

4th Batt: Intensive training commenced at the training area.

2/7th Batt: Batt HQ in Call Reserve was taken over by the Liverpool Scottish Reg as the front Line. The Batt moved back to bivouacs in Vlamertinghe at night.

2/8th Batt: Batt returned to Brandhoek area and camped for the night, leaving the canal Bank at 9.30pm.

10th Batt: A and B Coys relieved the Front Line shell holes and moved to Reserve Trenches behind the sector near Battle Wood. Lt H Moorhouse was wounded and 1 other rank also.

Home Front:

At the grand fete to be held at Perdiswell Park, on Thursday next (Sept. 20) and the following Saturday, in aid of the Mayor’s Fund for Providing Homes for Disabled Sailors and Soldiers, there will be a multitude of attractions, including two military bands (Norton and Worcester). A programme of sports will be carried out under the direction of Mr. E.C. Harrison, and Mrs. Harrison will look after the refreshment department. A “White Elephant” sale will be conducted by Mrs. Sandham and there will be concerts under the direction of Mr. Leonard Winter. Mrs. Ernest Day will take part, with others, in the performance e of “The Duchess of Bayswater.” Fruit, flowers, and produce, sweets and smokes, and toys will be on sale at stalls under the management of Mrs. S. Southall, Mrs. Price Hughes, and Mrs. Newcombe respectively. But the greatest attraction of all will be the remains of the Zeppelin brought down at Potters Bar – the gondola, engine, lattice-girder, propeller, etc. The fete will be opened on Thursday at 2.30 pm.

Worcester County Tribunals: A long written statement in support of his appeal was read by Thomas Henry Hill, draper, 38, single, passed for general service. He disagreed with his classification, saying he weighed only 7 stone 4lb and his chest measurement was 30 ins and he asked the Tribunal if he looked like a general service man. He was a general and fancy draper and at the city Tribunal Lieut. King laid great stress on the word “fancy,” and suggested that his mother could manage the business. “But then “said Hill, “Lieut. King does not know my mother.” (Laughter) She was 69 and could not carry about material weighing 50lbs each. If he was called up the business must be closed. Military appeal dismissed.

Worcester County Tribunals: The Worcester Ice Company appealed against the decision of the Local Tribunal, who withdrew the certificate of Edward S. Joslin (34), general service. Mr. Smith, the Manager, said that they had 14,000 lbs. of bacon stored at St. John’s. They made about 100 tons of ice a month. Joslin and a man named Loxley were the only two men at the branch and it was necessary that the machinery should run day and night, Joslin (who slept on the premises) was indispensable. Unless two men were there the food would be in peril.

On Wednesday evening Beatrice Wilsdon, of Llttleworth Street, was found in her house covered in blood with her throat badly cut and she was removed to the Evesham Cottage Hospital, where she lies in a precarious condition. She was recently married to a soldier, who was wounded at Mons and has been in the War from the commencement and he had lately returned to the front.

Official confirmation has been received of the death of Pte. E.R. (Reggie) Conn, King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, nephew of Mr. J. Carter, 36, Sandys Road, Worcester. Nineteen years of age, Pte. Conn had been for two years employed at the Upper Hall Hospital for Wounded Soldiers at Ledbury and went to the front only four weeks ago, being attached to a hospital at the base. He was killed instantaneously by the explosion of a bomb dropped by an enemy aviator on the hospital. Mr. Carter has also lost another nephew by death from wounds received in action – Pte. W.H. Chance, formerly at Worcester Post Office, who joined the Post Office Rifles, his death occurring in 1915. Mr. Carter’s brother, Pte. Arthur Carter, R.G.A., who was for many years at Messrs. Harper’s brewery and formerly kept the Railway Bell, St. Martin’s Gate, is now lying ill in Reading War Hospital.

A fire was discovered at No. 6, Union Street, by a man named Dennis Rearoon, of Crump’s Lodging House, Bridge Street. The house is tenanted by William Bullock and is insured. The fire is supposed to have been caused by clothes, hung on the fire-guard, catching fire. Much damage was done to the room.

Mrs. K. Smith has received official news that her husband Pte. G. Smith, of one of the Territorial Battalions of the Worcestershire Regiment, was killed in action on August 27th. He joined the Army in September, 1914, and went out with the Battalion in March, 1915. He was wounded five weeks later and came to England, where he was for twelve months. He went out again in May, 1916 and was gassed in July. He has been at the front ever since. He leaves a widow and three children, the youngest, which he had never seen, is 14 months old. He was employed at Messrs. Williamsons Ltd., for a good many years, and was a well-known Worcester man. His chums send their deepest sympathy as “he was a good soldier and the best of pals to those that knew him.”

An Isle of Wight man has succeeded in growing a vegetable marrow which weighs forty-three pounds. To avoid its being mistaken for the island he has scratched his name and address on it.

Information researched by The Worcestershire World War 100 team