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Key dates over July 1917

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

16th July 1917 - Worcester House Struck by Lightning

Rolling casualty count: 6763

War Front:

4th Batt: All Coys practised attacking.

2/8th Batt: All Coys practising trench to trench attack. Three other ranks arrived from Base.

10th Batt: Batt under the Coy Commanders doing drill etc.

Home Front:

Worcester House Struck by Lightning: The house in which Mrs. Collier (mother of the late Sergt. Collier, the Worcestershire county cricketer) resides at 6A, Albany Terrace, was struck by lightning at about 1.30pm. A chimney pot was knocked off, two fairly large holes were made in the roof and several tiles were displaced. In one bedroom the ventilator of the fireplace was thrown down into the grate, and there are two cracks in the ceiling corresponding to the hole in the roof. The lightning flashed through another bedroom where Mrs. Collier and Mrs. Sidney Collier and her baby were sitting and shot a hassock from the feet of Mrs. Collier underneath the bed. Luckily neither of them sustained any injury beyond that of shock. It is thought that the lightning was attracted either by a metal pipe outside the house round which the ivy has been scorched, or by a mantel piece or a tin box in one of the bedrooms. There was a noise as of an explosion and several neighbours heard it in addition to the startled inmates of the house. Mrs. Sidney Collier was so shaken by the shock that she had to be attended by a doctor.

The rainfall during Sunday, as registered at the Waterworks, was .9 inches. The rainfall during June was 1.72 inches. For May the figure was 3.08, the highest rainfall for any one day being on May 27, when it was 1.33.

Information researched by The Worcestershire World War 100 team