LOCAL CASUALTIES:  1
Private Walter Gwynn - Third Battalion.

ROLLING CASUALTY COUNT: 620

First Battalion La Gorgue: Corps Reserve Billets.
Second Battalion Germans still very active with their artillery.  ‘A’ and ‘B’ Companies relieved from firing line by ‘C’ and ‘D’ Companies.  Ground drying rapidly.  Hard frost.
Third Battalion E Kemmel, relieved Royal Fusiliers in trenches.

Cheery Optimism: The cheery optimism of our soldiers at the front is very remarkable. One jovial Tommy, who has just written home to a friend, must be a valuable asset as a spirit-reviver to any company of soldiers.  He writes in the following strain:- “When we were filed into the pool of water where we were told we must make ourselves comfortable for the night, I asked a chum to lend me a looking-glass, because my mother told me before I came to the war that I must not sleep in any strange bed unless I was sure the blankets were well aired.” Mark Twain has certainly gone, but a man who can get so much wit out of the mud, clay, and water of the scene of operations in Flanders is surely a worthy disciple of the great-hearted American humourist.

Soldiers’ Concert at the Workhouse:  At the presentation to the Workhouse Master on Wednesday a concert was given by the officers, NCOs, and men of the eighth Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment.  At the opening Captain Dobson said the concert was given as a small return for the kindness received by the ‘C’ Company whilst attending the Workhouse for drills etc.

A meeting  of the City Council will be held on Tuesday next. The Streets Committee recommend that the salary of Mr PH Wakefield, engineering assistant, be increased from £130 to £150  at once, and that an annual increase of £10 per annum be made in his salary until it reaches £180. The Streets Committee recommend that during 1915-16 Broad Street, from Bridge Street to the existing wood pavement; Foregate Street, Tything, and Barbourne Road be surfaced with tarmac, at a cost of £2,276 13s 4d, and that application be made to the Road Board for a grant of £550.

Information researched by Sue Redding.