Skip to navigation | Skip to content | Skip to footer

Key dates over July 1918

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 31

Lives lost on this day: 0

18th July 1918 - Second Battle of the Marne. General Ferdinand Foch launches his first counter-attack after five concerted German offensives. The Allied armies take the initiative. Fighting on the Marne continues until 7 August.

Rolling casualty count: 10248

War Front:

2nd Batt: A quiet day. Lt Scot was wounded. The Americans were arranged into platoons. The HLI sent a strong patrol to our front but took no prisoners.

4th Batt: The Coy Tactical Scheme was carried out on Y Range commencing at 8.30am.

1/7th and 1/8th Batts: At 6am the Brigade arrived at Santa Maria.

Home Front:

Worcestershire and the War: Captain C.D.S. Agassiz, M.D., R.A.M.C., has been awarded the Military Cross and the Bar to the M.C. for repeated acts of heroism in reaching aid posts with his bearers under heavy shell fire.

Today, at the Guildhall, Worcester, the City Coroner held an inquest on the body of Harold Henry Higgins (10), of 26, Easy Row. The mother, Mrs. Mary Jane Higgins, said that her son left at about 6.45 on Tuesday evening to gather dandelions. She had cautioned him against going to the river as he could not swim. Charles Jackson, a friend of Higgins, living at 4, Easy Row, went with him to the Pitchcroft Promenade to get the dandelions. Higgins told him that there was a stick in the water, and witness, who was on top of the bank watching a cricket match, saw him lying down on the bank by the water. There was another stick floating down, and he tried to get hold of a chain and throw it over the stick. Witness continued watching the cricket, when he suddenly heard a splash, and, going down to the waterside, saw his friend in the water. He rose once and then disappeared. Witness then ran home, and did not tell anyone, as he was afraid to do so. P.C. Wynne dragged the river on Wednesday morning, and found the body 200 yards above the Paddock in eight feet of water and about three feet from the bank. The Jury returned a verdict of “Death by misadventure.”

Pilfering: Frederick Carter (12), 16, Bedwardine Road, and Walter Hill (10), 25, Pitmaston Road, were charged with stealing from Nursery Walk apples to the value of 1s. the property of Charles Fawkes. Both defendants pleaded guilty. Elizabeth Hannah Fawkes witnessed the theft. Ada Gertrude Andrews, a schoolgirl, said that she saw the theft, and saw Mrs. Fawkes call to the boys. She received some apples from them twenty minutes later. Fined 2s. 6d.

Information researched by The Worcestershire World War 100 team