A memorial to the Worcestershire County Cricket Club players who were killed in the First World War has been rededicated to mark the Centenary of 1914.

Some 17 club members, including 10 first XI players, lost their lives in the conflict.

The memorial had hung above the bar in the old, 19^th-century pavilion but had become blackened and almost impossible to read before its restoration.

A second memorial, including names from the original plaque and others from the Second World War, has also been unveiled.

Names on the memorial

Among the Worcestershire players who lost their lives was 31-year-old Cecil Lushington. A former pupil of Haileybury College in Hertfordshire, he was killed at the Battle of the Somme on 3 July 1916 while a lieutenant with the 10^th Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment.

John Winnington DSO played one game for Worcestershire, in 1908, scoring 0 and 20 in his two innings against Oxford University. He died of wounds on 22 September 1918 while a lieutenant colonel commanding 1/4^th Battalion of the Northamptonshire Regiment in Palestine.

Neuve Chapelle

Lieutenant colonel Ernest Wodehouse DSO was a Boer War veteran who was killed while leading the 1^st Battalion Worcestershire Regiment at the battle of Neuve Chapelle in 1915.

Wodehouse had led his men forward to storm buildings that lay opposite the British front line, but their position became untenable when no support arrived and they were surrounded on three sides.

The Worcesters were forced to pull back and suffered heavy losses in the ensuing retreat across open ground – among them their lieutenant colonel.