7th September 1918 - Accident cycling along Lowesmoor

Rolling casualty count: 10565

War Front:

2nd Batt: Coys training in showery weather.

4th Batt: Kit, small box respirators and battle stores were inspected and there was general cleaning up. Heavy thunderstorms resulted in a number of tents being blown down.

14th Batt: A Coy worked on the Bullecourt to Queant Road with C Coy. B Coy worked on the Inchy to Pronville Road. At 4 pm B Coy moved to east of Croisilles to work on the 17th Corps roads, the Division having been relieved.

Yeomanry/Cavalry: many Yeomanry and British Infantry had been sent to France and their places taken by Indian Army.

Home Front:

At the invitation of Canon Chappel, the Midland Co-operative Education Association is holding a Week-End School at the School House, College Green. At the first meeting in the College Hall, on Friday evening, the Co-operators were warmly welcomed to the Cathedral Precincts by the Dean, and Canon Wilson delivered a most stimulating and suggestive inaugural lecture, in which he frankly challenged the programme of the Association as unduly stressing the economic side of education as compared with the humanistic and spiritual. An animated and instructive discussion ensued and Canon Wilson was warmly thanked for his paper, which much deserves publication.

Mr. and Mrs. James Burton, of Weston Hall, Stoke Works, have been notified that their son, 1st Class Stoker Harry Burton, Royal Navy, has been drowned as the result of the ship having been torpedoed. Stoker Burton is the fourth son. He was 27 years of age, single, and had been in the Navy eight years, prior to which he worked at the Stoke Prior Salt Works. Deceased’s brother John is a sergeant in a Worcestershire Territorial Battalion.

On Friday evening William Slade, shop porter, of 112, Cavendish Street, was cycling along Lowesmoor, when, in an effort to avoid running into someone, he side-slipped and fell heavily. He was carried into a shop close by, when he complained of pain in his left leg. He was conveyed to the Infirmary on the police ambulance, where he was examined by the House Surgeon, who found that he had a fractured thigh.

Worcester Rifle Club: To be shot on Thursday, 19th September, and Saturday, 21st September, commencing 3pm both days. 100 Yards bull’s eye and figure targets, 8 shots at each, 7 to count. Entries close September 14th. Entrance fee 1s. Competitors will shoot in the order in which their names are given in at the range.

At the Worcester City Police Court today Frederick Simmons (38), of no fixed abode, labourer, Henry William Strickland, of no fixed abode, showman, and Leonard Seeney (25), 166, Great Francis Street, Birmingham, riveter, were charged with breaking into the shops of Messrs. Downs and Willes, Lipton, Ltd., and Messrs. T.H. Sidney and Co., and stealing a coat, value £3 3s. from the first shop, various small items, value 12s. 7d. and about 7s. 3d in money, from Messrs. Lipton’s, and a number of articles, including six enamelled service chevrons, and about 17s. 9d. in money, total value about £6 16s. belonging to Messrs. Sidney. Each of the men said that they were not in Worcester on the night of 26th-27th August (when the shops were entered), but were at Cardiff where they stayed at a restaurant kept by a Mrs. Macdonald. The Chief Constable said that when arrested one of them said that he was in Birmingham that night. Still he agreed to make all enquiries for the accused if they gave him the address of the person with whom they stayed.

Sapper A. Middleton, R.E.’s, who lived formerly at 3, Southfield Street, and who was reported missing last May, has written home to his sister in Worcester, stating that he is a wounded prisoner. The postcard was dated in pencil 5/8/18, and the official stamp mark is 20/8/18, so that it has got through quickly. It is written from Kriegsgefangenen, Sendung, but it is not in Sapper Middleton’s writing. It says that he has been in hospital several weeks, and is now convalescent, his wounds practically healed. He adds: “You have nothing whatever to worry about, for I am quite contented. I am being treated with every respect. The hospital here is similar to those in England.”

In connection with the Ministry of Reconstruction, interim industrial committees have been established in certain less organised industries. These already number 20, and their object is to make the trade bodies fully representative. Included in the number is the interim committee for the glove industry, which is now sending out a circular urging both employers and workpeople to enrol in their respective associations and trade unions. The circular is signed by Sir H. Urwick, of the firm of Messrs. Fownes, of Worcester, and by Mr. W. H. Taverner, of the United Glovers’ Mutual Aid Society, Yeovil, who are Chairman and Vice-Chairman respectively of the Committee.

Worcester “Lifeboat’ Day: We have not had a Flag Day for the National Lifeboat Institution for the past two or three years, so that today’s appeal, in view of the special work of the institution arising out of the war, is opportune. Since the outbreak of war the Institution, through its life-boats and other means, has saved over 4,000 lives and more than 1,400 of these were the lives of sailors, soldiers, doctors, nurses, and others who have been rescued from H.M. ships and other vessels, mined, torpedoed, or otherwise in distress from causes arising directly out of the war. Not only have the life-boats given back 4,000 lives (the equivalent of four splendid battalions) to Britain and her Allies, but nearly all the lives thus saved have been those of vigorous men who were either fighting for the common cause in the Navy or the Army, or else engaged in the important task of conveying to these shores the food and the raw material upon which the health and efficiency of 48,000,000 people so largely depend. The Institution receives no subsidy from the Government, and depends entirely upon voluntary contributions.

On Monday afternoon an address will be given at the Guildhall on the work of the British American Fellowship by a member of its Committee, Dr. George E. MacLean, who has come to England as Specialist in Higher Education of the U.S.A. Bureau of Education at Washington. Worcester people may not all be aware of the great strides which this Society has made during the past two or three months. It originated in Worcester in the “adoption’ of its sister city in Massachusetts, and is rapidly spreading, it is now 300 committees working in 300 cities and towns in the United Kingdom The primary aims are the ‘adoption’ of American cities and towns to give hospitality to the officers and men of the American Expeditionary Force. The linking-up of these namesake places will produce a bond between England and America which, it is hoped, will last long after the War is over.

Information researched by The Worcestershire World War 100 team