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Key dates over November 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: 2

30th November 1918 - A great £1,00 beauty competition for women war workers

Rolling casualty count: 11559

War Front:

4th Batt: Batt marched 23 km to Warzee. The Brigade transport moved independently.

14th Batt: Batt moved from Blaugies to Le Hau-dit, Petit Dour.

No men have been killed or wounded during November.

Home Front:

Worcestershire Voluntary Aid Detachment: Orders for Monday, Dec. 2 – The Detachment and Volunteers attached to parade at Shirehall at 8pm for instruction on triangular and roller bandages and bandaging, under the Quartermaster.

Fatal Accident at Chaddesley: Mr. Thomas Hyde, an old and respected parishioner, met with a sad mishap on Saturday evening. As he and his wife were walking towards the village, on their way to the doctor’s, Mr. Hyde was run into by a motor cycle with sidecar, and knocked violently to the ground. He was picked up in an unconscious condition, and removed to his house at Bluntingdon, where he died about midnight on Tuesday without recovering consciousness. He had sustained a fracture of the base of the skull, a broken leg, and other injuries. He was about 60 years of age.

A number of released prisoners of war belonging to Worcestershire arrived at Southampton on Wednesday. One of them is, Staff-Sergeant Allen, of the Army Veterinary Corps, who was taken prisoner with so many of the Yeomanry, at Katia. Since his release, by the Turks, six weeks ago, he has been in hospital in Egypt. He sent four letters thence to his wife, at 17, Penbury Street, Worcester. A further postcard reached Mrs. Allen today saying that he was in a London hospital suffering from muscular rheumatism. One of the letters had been written for him by a comrade named Harry Fudger, formerly a butcher, of Barbourne, and announced that Fudger and others were coming home with him.

A great £1,00 beauty competition for women war workers, which is being organised by the “Daily Mirror” is proving a tremendous success. The aim is to discover the 49 most beautiful women war workers in the country and already some 10,000 competitors have submitted their photographs for entry. These are to be judged by a special committee of famous artists. The competition is open to all women and girls who have worked in any branch of war activity, and have helped in bringing about the final victory. The first prize is £500, and a further £500 is divided up into forty-eight other cash prizes. In addition there are special prizes for photographers.

Now that the fighting on all fronts is suspended (if it is not over) it is possible to give some particulars of the forces raised in Worcestershire, and to indicate, in some degree, the part they played on the various fronts. In the early stages of the war it was possible to state where the various battalions were. Later, for military reasons, it was deemed advisable not to name the Battalions, and any reference made to them was under the name of “The Worcesters”. The 1st Battalion was in Egypt at the outbreak of war, and was called home. It went out to France fairly early in in the war, and has been there ever since, being of course, re-furnished by draft. The immortal 2nd Battalion formed part of the “Old Contemptibles,” going out to France under Brig. Gen. (then Lt. Col.) Westmacott. The Battalion took part in fighting on the Marne, the Aisne, and at Ypres. It was, of course, while at Ypres that it repaired the line at Gheluvelt. The 3rd Battalion was stationed at Tidworth when war broke out. It formed a unit of the “Old Contemptibles,” and fought at Condery, Le Cateau, on the Marne, the Aisne, and Ypres. The 4th Battalion was called from Burmah and mobilised at Banbury, and went out to Gallipoli. They were mentioned three times in Sir Ian Hamilton’s despatch, but he did not always distinguish between the 4th and the 9th, which also went out there. On leaving England the Battalion numbered 1,001, including 27 officers. After nearly three months hard fighting on the Gallipoli Peninsula, the Battalion was sent to Lemnos for a rest, and it then numbered 209 of the original composition. The 9th Battalion, the first of Kitchener’s Army, has fought in Gallipoli and Mesopotamia. The 10th Battalion also did valiant service in France. The constitution of the 11th Battalion was well-known in the City, for it was billeted here for a time and it went out to Salonika. Of the other Service Battalions, we are permitted to know little at present, but the 14th did valuable pioneer work in France. Of the Territorial Battalions, the 1/7th and the 1/8th served in France and Italy and the 2/7th also served in France.

Information researched by The Worcestershire World War 100 team