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Key dates over March 1915

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: 2

2nd March 1915 - City Council opposes staff salary increase

Rolling casualty count: 669

1st Batt: ‘B’ Lines: A quiet day. Germans shelled La Bassee Road for half an hour in afternoon. Companies working all night in reclaiming old fire trench and in making steps to get out of them;

2nd Batt: In the trenches at Cuinchy. Shelled as usual. Relieved by the 2nd HLI at 5pm. Marched into billets about 1 mile behind the line at Annequin;

3rd Batt: In trenches at Kemmel;

Worcester Fracas: Mrs. Birch, who was injured very badly on Saturday last, became worse on Monday, and she is now in a very critical condition. Her husband stands on remand charged with unlawful wounding;

Increases of Salary Refused: The Mayor (Ald. Leicester) presided at today’s meeting of the City Council. In view of the notices of motion on the agenda with regard to wages and salaries, the attitude of the Council towards two recommendation of the Education Committee was specially interesting. The Council were recommended to increase the salary of Miss Mitchell from £130 to £150, and that of Miss Paterson from £100 to £120, both by annual increments of £10. Only a few members voted in favour of the first recommendation and it was lost by a substantial majority. When the second recommendation was made, Mr. Fairbury said if the Council followed this course, Worcester would not be able to be held up as an educational centre. Mr. Moore said the present was a very serious time in the history of the country, and people getting £120 a year ought to delay asking for advances for the time being. The Council had always been generous in normal times. School teachers and others with a reasonable salary, who did not pay income tax, would not feel the pinch of the war except through ordinary commodities. This was not the proper time for any Committee to recommend increases. The motion was lost;

Sir Edward Elgar is one of six signatories to an appeal to the public on behalf of distressed musicians. The appeal says:- “It seems most likely that there will be no class more adversely affected by the war than professional musicians. When there is necessity for retrenchment people reduce their expenses in the direction of things which it appears possible to do without, and one of the most obvious things to do without is the music which requires the ministrations of professional musicians. ”

Information researched by Sue Redding