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Key dates over September 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

Lives lost on this day: 29

30th September 1918 - Bulgaria agrees an armistice with the Allies

Rolling casualty count: 10901

War Front:

1st Batt: Batt moved to Cellar Camp, Neuville St Vaast in very wet weather.

2nd Batt: The enemy was discovered to have retired and patrols pushed out at once to the west bank of the canal. The whole Division moved forward. The 100th Brigade occupied the final objectives of the previous day. Strong patrols were sent out along the Front to reconnoitre the crossings with little resistance.

4th Batt: At dawn the Batt pushed forward and took Kortenberg Ridge and advanced under heavy machine gun and artillery fire to a Line in front of Gheluveldt. A message was received from Lt Gen Sir Beauvoir de Lisle, Commander of 15th Corps which said “Well done the 29th, I knew you would do great things.”. The mule train moved off from the school at Ypres to Gheluveldt. Great coats and mobile reserves of ammunition moved by limber. The journey took 15 hours as the roads were in poor condition owing to rain and traffic and wounded hampering progress.

14th Batt: B Coy worked on the track through La Folie wood over the Canal de L`Escaut. C Coy worked on the tracks east of the canal. A Coy rested 3 Platoons and 1 Platoon worked on the Cantaing to Anneux Road. I OR was killed and 6 were wounded.

Yeomanry/Cavalry: The Regiment started to go northwards towards Damascus, to help with the defence of the Supply Line. After a 3 mile march men bivouacked in the olive groves of Samaria.

Home Front:

Worcestershire Fruit and Vegetable Society: Wanted immediately, 50 tons of Horse Chestnuts. Consignments of not less than 28lbs. will be accepted at the Society’s Depots and Sub-Depots in connection with the Worcester, Upton and Bromsgrove Branches during this week and next week. They will be paid for about a week after delivery at the rate of 1s. 6d. per cwt. Collectors are warned against trespass and damage. Permission should always be asked before collecting on farms or in woods. F. Boyes, Manager, 10, The Butts, Worcester.

Alleged Bicycle Thefts: Alfred Daniel Wright and George Wright, of Birmingham, were charged with stealing a bicycle, the property of Charles Reginald Nind, value £6, at Fernhill Heath, on Saturday. Complainant said that he missed the bicycle from his yard. He identified it at the Police Station. P.C. Cook said that on Sunday he received a report of the loss from Mr. Nind, who, a few minutes later returned to tell him the bicycle which the elder prisoner was riding was his. Prisoner stated that he bought the machine for £2 from a man a mile from Bromsgrove. Inspector Price asked for a remand until further enquiries could be made. The elder prisoner, it was stated, was an absentee from the army, and the cycle that the other prisoner was riding had been stolen in Worcester. Defendants were remanded till next Petty Sessions.

Corporal F. Rowe, Worc. Regt. (husband of Mrs. Rowe, 84, Hylton Road, Worcester) is lying in a casualty clearing station dangerously ill from gunshot wounds in the back and legs and penetrating the abdomen. Mrs. Rowe has received a letter from the Chaplain also, to say that her husband is badly wounded, but that everything possible is being done for him by the doctors and nurses, and that she will be kept informed of his condition. He went to the front in March, 1917. Before being called up he was employed at Messrs. Williamson’s Providence Works.

General List: Today’s list includes 156 officers – killed 20, died of wounds 10, died 9, wounded 101. Casualties in the ranks number 5,023 – killed 553, died of wounds 272, died 13, wounded 4,006, missing 241.

On Saturday afternoon, Col. E.V.V. Wheeler (Chairman of the County War Agricultural Executive) explained to a meeting of members of the various district Committees in the county the proposals of the Executive for 1919. He said that the Government wanted another million acres ploughed up, and had asked Worcestershire to contribute 18,000. He hoped that they would get half that amount broken up.

Mr. Willis Bund, presiding on Saturday at the annual meeting of the Severn Commissioners, alluded to the accident which occurred a few weeks ago to the Stourport steamer Princess Beatrice, which ran into the lock gates at Diglis, and caused a panic, resulting in the drowning of a Birmingham woman. He moved that a recommendation be sent to the Board of Trade that before granting a certificate of efficiency to any passenger steamer on the Severn a sufficiently skilled crew should be provided for working the steamer, so that the safety of the public might be ensured. The motion was seconded by Alderman Davis, of Cardiff, and carried.

A bearer party from the Worcestershire Regt. parade under Corporal Dews at Ombersley on Saturday to carry to his last resting place the late Gunner A. Passey, who had died from pneumonia on the previous Sunday at Salisbury Camp. The service was conducted by the Vicar, and at the conclusion Bugler Welsh sounded “The Last Post.” The wreaths included one from the officers, N.C.O.’s, and men of Greenlands Detachment, Shrewton. Only a week before his death the deceased had been home on leave. His brother, George, is a prisoner of war in Germany.

Information researched by The Worcestershire World War 100 team