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Key dates over July 1917

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Lives lost on this day: 9

23rd July 1917 - Aged Man’s Burns

Rolling casualty count: 6800

War Front:

1st Batt: Batt moved at 10am and marched back to Ypres and HQ at Lille Gate.

2nd Batt: Men bathed before breakfast. C Coy was on the firing range, A, AB and D Coys constructed strong points on the Bombing field.

3rd Batt: Batt relieved by 2nd Northampton Reg and returned to Halifax Camp.

4th Batt: Batt marched to Herzeele and practised the attack on the Brigade Training ground with the 1st NFLD.

1/8th Batt: Batt arrived at Hopoutre and marched 2 miles to billets near the square in Poperinghe.

Yeomanry/Cavalry: The enemy attack was a failure partly owing to the Turks leaving the Germans in the lurch and it left many prisoners on our hands.

Home Front:

On Saturday at midnight, a goods guard named Frank Clothier, aged 45, was fatally injured whilst engaging in shunting operations at the Midland Railway Goods Station, Shrub Hill. He came with a train which arrived in Worcester at 10.30 that evening and about an hour and a half later, whilst crossing the road, was knocked down. His left thigh was badly pierced, and his right leg was broken. He was taken to the Infirmary with all possible speed, but from the first his case was hopeless and he succumbed soon after admission. He was a married man with a family.

Aged Man’s Burns: A death which took place at the Infirmary was that of an old man named Henry Wood, aged 73 of Lye, Stourbridge. He had been employed as a labourer by Mr. Philip Baldwin, of Oldbury Farm, St. John’s, Worcester. On Wednesday he was discovered by his comrades with his legs badly burned. Apparently he was in the act of making himself a cup of tea on the previous evening when, somehow or other, his trouser legs caught fire. He was found 200 yards away from the fire, having been in the field all night. At first there was a chance of his recovery, but later he had a relapse and died on Sunday.

Bequest to Royal Albert Orphanage: Mr. G.W. Bull, Secretary to the Royal Albert Orphanage, has received a letter from the Bishop of Worcester enclosing a cheque for £100 from the bequest of the late Mrs. Wheeley Lea. In the letter a wish is expressed that the sum should be invested and the income treated as an annual subscription.

Information researched by The Worcestershire World War 100 team