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Key dates over November 1914

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Lives lost on this day: 3

19th November 1914 - Snow in the trenches

Rolling casualty count: 514

1st Batt: St Avaast ‘A’ Lines: Snowed last night, country white, the first time some of our men from India had seen snow for 8 or 9 years. By 7 pm the ground was covered with snow, a cold north east wind was blowing with 17o of frost. Officers and men’s clothes were wet and the whole Battalion dead tired.

2nd Batt: Ordered into the trenches again. At 5pm marched via Hooge to the trenches immediately S of Ypres-Menin road and relieved the Cheshires and Bedfords. Snowing hard. Bitterly cold. Trenches half full of water. Heavy sniping. Under the order of Gen Count Gleichen 15th Infantry Brigade;

3rd Batt: Neuve Eglise:Received orders 2:45 pm to move to Locre at 3: 30 pm. Destination subsequently changed to La Clytte. On arrival there 2 companies to billets, 2 companies (B&D) to reserve trenches E of Kemmel in support 2nd Cav Division.

Cabmen’s Shelter: Shrub Hill: Sir:- This has at last (thanks to our City Member, who has interested himself on behalf of the cabmen) been erected, but not used, and, on inquiry why, I am informed that the Railway Companies require the men to pay 1s each per week! There are ten men – 10s per week rental for shelter, with heating accommodating – a good interest for the outlay, surely. The men have offered 3d per week each (2s 6d per week rental), £6 10s per annum. Surely this cannot be termed an unreasonable offer. The men think the public should be made aware of the reason why the shelter, although finished nearly a month ago, is not available for use to the men during the cold weather now upon us. ‘Cabby’s Friend.’

Steady flow of Recruits: There were 50 recruits at Norton on Wednesday, bringing the total for the three days up to 197. This is excellent progress, and at this rate the two new Service Battalions, the 12th and the 13th, will soon be completed.

At Kidderminster Town Council Meeting on Wednesday, Mr Tandy said there had been a mistake in the Birmingham papers relative to recruiting in Worcestershire. The returns were based on a population of 562,000, whereas the population was 380,000, and instead of the proportion of recruits in Worcestershire being the lowest on the list given, it should have been nearly 5 per cent, which would have place the county very high up on the list.

Old Elizabethans on Active Service: The Jamaica Gazette Extraordinary, of September 9, announces that F G Brooks is appointed an officer of the Jamaica Corps of Scouts, under the “Volunteer Force Law, 1914.” Many Jamaica volunteers are eager to leave for the front.

About 80 men towards the 117 required for the No 2 Worcs National Reserve Co. have been enrolled. This Company is being formed like that which left Worcester recently, for railway protection duty.

Sir, - The “D” Troop (Boy Scouts) has received so generous a response to the appeal you kindly inserted for old newspapers, to be sold for the benefit of the local branch of the National Relief Fund, that it is not possible for them to call at each house weekly. It has therefore been arranged that the various patrols shall visit the following districts fortnightly or monthly, as required: Bath Road and district, Thursday afternoon; Barbourne, Tuesday night and Thursday afternoon; Wyld’s Lane and district, Friday night; High Street and London Road, Saturday afternoon. Gifts of food and clothing for the Belgian refugees can be collected at the same times as the newspapers if a postcard is sent to me. SE Lewis, Hon. Sec, “D” Troop, 14, Lansdowne Crescent. November 19th, 1914.

Information researched by Sue Redding