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Key dates over March 1918

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Lives lost on this day: 1

18th March 1918 - Accident in Lowesmoor

Rolling casualty count: 8559

War Front:

2nd Batt: Batt relieved by the 9th HLI and returned to Ypres. Capt Marrion-Jones MC, (RAMC,) was evacuated sick.

3rd Batt: Batt moved to No 11 Camp Favreuil, in readiness for the expected German offensive.

4th Batt: Batt went to the baths at Houpoutre for de-lousing and sterilization of greatcoats and blankets. 8 officers and 8 NCOs went to Field Works School Brandhoek, for a 4 day course. The massed drums of the Worcs and Hants played “Retreat “on the Square. A draft of 61 OR joined the Batt.

Home Front:

At an investiture held at Buckingham Palace on Saturday, His Majesty decorated Lt. R. F. Sievers, London Regt., with the Military Cross. Lieut. Sievers is a son of Mr. F.W. Sievers, of Worcester.

Marriage of Mons Hero: The marriage took place at St. Mary’s Church this afternoon, of Pte. R. Price, A.S.C and Miss L. Tyler, of Northfield Street. The bridegroom has served in France since the commencement of the war and was present at the Battle of Mons. He is now on leave and will return to France again this week. Pte. W. H. Orme, late of the South Staffordshire Regt., of Love’s Grove, Worcester, who was also in the Mons battle and who lost his left arm at Neuve Chapelle in 1915, was present.

Accident in Lowesmoor: An accident occurred on the slope of the canal bridge in Lowesmoor this morning. A waggon loaded with hay and drawn by a pair of horses, belonging to the Forage Department, Spring Gardens, was coming down the incline of the Canal Bridge towards Lowesmoor when the weight of the load overran the horses and forced them into the window (plate glass) of Reginald Thomas, 11 Lowesmoor Place, breaking the frame and the supports. The horses were cut on the shoulders, but the driver, William Albert Munn, was not injured. Fortunately a tramway standard held up the waggon, which otherwise would have crashed into the house.

There was an immense assembly of people in the city streets this morning to welcome “Julian,” the Tank Bank. It arrived at Shrub Hill on Sunday and preparations were made for it to leave there this morning at 10 o’clock and to proceed to Cathedral Green. In order that it might demonstrate its ability to overcome obstacles, the City Engineer and his staff erected a rough barricade of sand bags and barbed wire on the hill near the station which extended half way across the road. The vicinity of Shrub Hill Station drive and the approach to the station were packed with people. There were people on the station roof and upon every wall or ledge or post which could be regarded as a vantage point. The roadway was lined on either side with hundreds of people and the police had difficulty in keeping a clear passage for traffic.

The Executive Officer read the circular which he had sent out to all the bakers in Worcester urging them at once to use potatoes in the making of bread and reported that about 25 of the 42 bakers were now adopting this course and others were either experimenting or waiting for machinery.

Butchers have been threatened that their registration may be withdrawn if they sell meat without taking the correct number of coupons from customers. This means that during a week like that just concluded, when supplies exceeded the coupon demand, the public are forbidden to buy meat above the quantity for which they have coupons, although the butcher has more than he can dispose of. The only means provided to avoid waste of this kind is that the shopkeeper shall obtain permissions – perhaps late on a Saturday night – to sell a surplus on the “fourth” coupon. By that time, however, that has generally been parted with for bacon or some other “equivalent.”

Information researched by The Worcestershire World War 100 team