Yesterday was Empire Day, and if not widely celebrated among the adult residents, it was not forgotten in the schools. All the children of Luton had their special celebrations at their schools, and in the town the Union Jack floated bravely from public buildings, factories and houses. Dunstable Road, Old Bedford Road Girls', Chapel Street, Queen Square Boys', Christ Church Infant and Seniors, St Mary's, St Matthew's, Hitchin Road, Beech Hill and Tennyson Road (pictured above) schools all held festivals.

Stories from The Luton News: Thursday, May 25th, 1916.

A 14-year-old pupil of Luton Modern School was being strongly recommended for a Royal Humane Society award after going to the rescue of a mother and baby from the sea at Worthing.

Although only able to swim a few strokes herself, the bravery of Joyce Cunningham (pictured right) was credited with preventing the woman and child from drowning. She and her mother, who lived at 35 Cardiff Road, Luton, were in the Sussex resort for health reasons and a change of air and were later joined by the Joyce's father, Christopher.

A sequel to the incident came in the Police Courts at Worthing when the rescued woman, the wife of a soldier at the Front, was charged with attempting to drown her nine-month-old daughter and attempting to commit suicide by throwing herself in the sea. A letter addressed to her mother was found nearby. She was granted bail pending trial later at the Assizes, provided she went to live with her mother. The baby was returned to her.

• Sid Fensome, of the Bedfordshires and from Stopsley, wrote home: "I am lucky to be able to write this letter, as we are having it a bit hot here just now. I have lost most of my pals, and I lost everything I had but what I stand up in during an attack which the Germans made upon out battalion, a battalion I am proud to be in, and the men they proved themselves to be that day. I shall never forget out company officer, the way he went about directing us before he fell. I am writing this letter from our reserved position, and I shall be in the front line again by the time you get it." [The writer was probably the later Sgt Sidney Fensome, 19789, 2nd Beds, who was killed in action on March 22nd, 1918, aged 28. He was the son of Samuel and Ellen Fensome, of Ramridge End Lane, Stopsley, and is commemorated on the Stopsley war memorial.]

• Military authorities were accused of behaving improperly in the case of a ploughman who had been exempted from army service by a medical board because of a heart condition. The 19-year-old later received a calling up notice and was advised by the medical board to return the papers to Luton. He was then ordered to appear at Luton in accordance with his notice, not allowed to leave and was packed off to Bedford without even being allowed to go home. Next day he found himself attached to the 14th Middlesex and sent away. the man was given no voice in the matter, the Ampthill District Tribunal heard, and the recruiting officers were being over-zealous.

• A man aged 29 who lived in Luton, travelled the country building steam ovens and claimed to be a Socialist and a conscientious objector, told the Luton Local Tribunal that he had voluntarily attested to avoid the army. He claimed that posters he had read hinted that if he didn't attest he couldn't appeal against military service. Challenged to produce one of the posters that justified the claim, he denied he was lying and said he had read them on hoardings in Lancashire. His appeal for exemption was disallowed.

• Pte Frederick Gordon Smart, of Laurel Villa, Harcourt Street, Luton, was reported to have been recently wounded by a gunshot in the right arm after serving nine months with the Bedfords in France.

• Lieut R. E. Oakley, con of Councillor and Mrs Albert Oakley, of High Town Road, returned to the Front yesterday after 10 days leave. Lieut Oakley, who is with the Beds Regiment, has twice had 15 days duty in the trenches without a rest since he was previously at home four months ago.

• In response to a shortage of eggs at the Wardown V.A.D. Hospital, children at Christ Church Days Schools in Buxton Road sent three baskets containing 350 eggs in all. Each child had been asked to take in a new-laid egg, and many of the eggs carried cheery messages from the boys and girls to the soldiers being treated at Wardown.

• A meeting held in Luton Town Hall under the auspices of the Tradesmen's Association agreed opening hours were unnecessarily long and that shops should generally close at 7pm, with some latitude on Fridays and Saturdays. Chemist Mr Webb said said he was convinced the public was ready to help in every way, by taking home parcels and shopping early.

• In what the judge at Luton County Court on Thursday termed a trivial case to be brought him, a judgement for 13 shillings was made for the Midland Railway Company as being part of an account owed by cattle dealer and butcher Edmund Poulton, of Stuart Street. There had been a dispute over the conveyance of 57 sheep from Cirencester in Gloucestershire to Luton that the railway company had loaded into medium sized wagons. Mr Poulton contended that they could have been delivered in small wagons at 13 shillings less. The company's loading expert maintained that the sheep were covered in mud and to required the larger wagons to be conveyed safely on their two-day journey.

• MP for Poplar Mr Alfred Yeo, who had hoped to introduce an amendment to the Military Service Bill to exempt shopkeepers and small businessmen from army service, told a meeting at the Plait Hall in Luton on Monday that the small trader helped build the revenue to "keep the show going," and if the authorities persisted in taking away from his business a man who definitely show that he was necessary as the head of the business, not only was the man deprived of his goodwill, which the livelihood of himself and family, but the rating authority would also be deprived of a revenue by the closing of the shop. In an hour-long speech the MP, who had himself begun as a small trader, also paid tribute to the Luton Borough Tribunal for already acting on the instruction about shopkeepers before it was actually issued.

• On Sunday the Wellington Street Baptists re-opened their organ after its repair and reconstruction. The organ has undergone considerable alteration, and large congregations gathered to listen to the instrument and the special singing of the choir. It was the unanimous opinion that a vast improvement had been effected in the organ.