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Key dates over December 1916

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: 3

27th December 1916 - Boy dies after drinking disinfectant

Rolling casualty count: 5153

2nd Batt; A quiet day for the men as not much cleaning up could be done owing to the dirty, muddy state of the camp.

3rd Batt: Batt went back to Le Bizet in Support Lines.

4th Batt: There was training in attack from the trenches and consolidation of captured trenches.

Yeomanry/Cavalry: The weather broke and the rain came down in torrents, making the dug-outs uncomfortable.

Home Front:

Christmas in Worcester – Wounded Soldiers Entertained – Wounded soldiers from the various hospitals in the district had an enjoyable time on Christmas Day afternoon. An entertainment was arranged at the Theatre Royal, a large number of patients attended, the majority were conveyed to the theatre in motor cars lent by citizens or residents in the county. When they arrived they were presented with cigarettes, or tobacco and they commenced consumption and fumigation at once.

Evesham Boy Poisoned – Carbolic Acid in Mistake for Beer – An inquest into the death of George Hancox aged 10, son of James Hancox, labourer, 3 Trumpet Yard, Evesham. The boy’s mother said on Wednesday the boy complained of a pain in his head and spent the day in bed. On Thursday he got up and said he was alright and played about the house. Later he fell down on the floor, she thought he had fainted and she put him to bed. He did not regain consciousness. The boy died the following morning. She had a disinfectant in the house which they fetched from the Town Hall in a beer bottle and was kept on the pantry shelf. She had the disinfectant for washing the floor.

Information researched by The Worcestershire World War 100 team