Prisoners of the Turks

Digest of stories from the Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph: March 16th, 1918.

Sgt Frederick William Cleaver (pictured), of 47 May Street, Luton, is a prisoner of war in Turkey, and he writes to us from Belemedik, Bozanti, Turkey, as follows:

Sgt Frederick William Cleaver"Just a line asking you to publish that me and Pte G. Cook, of the 1/5th Beds Regt, are prisoners of war, so all our friends and relations will know. We are fairly well, and I hope some kind prisoner of war fund secretary will help us with a little money or a food parcel or clothing, of which we are in need, we shall be very grateful. Hoping I am not asking too much of your kindness - Yours Faithfully, F. Cleaver, Sgt."

The names of Sgt Cleaver and Pte Cook are in the possession of the Town Clerk, as Hon Sec of the Prisoners of War Committee. At present it is impossible to send to prisoners in Turkey, but the Town Clerk is hoping and anticipating the removal of the embargo at an early date, and those prisoners will then be supplied with what is permissible.

[Sgt Cleaver, 200497, Beds Regiment, survived his captivity and died in Luton in November 1953. Pte George Cook, 200573, Beds Regiment, died as a prisoner of war in Palestine on November 4th, 1918.]

  • Pride mingled with pathos in a ceremony at the close of a concert held last evening by the Luton branch of the Comrades of the Great War, when the Mayor (Councillor C. Dillingham) presented Military Medals to the mother and wife of two Luton men - Gunner Horace Gwynn Harding and Pte William Henry Brown - who after showing exceptional bravery were unhappily killed in battle. The presentations took place in the Winter Assembly Hall.

  • Yesterday afternoon an interesting meeting took place at the Town Hall when, on behalf of the Y.M.C.A., Lady Wernher presented badges of membership and certificates of recognition of work to a number of local ladies and gentlemen.

  • Lady Wernher is also taking a very active interest in the Luton Y.W.C.A. Club and has attended several committee meetings recently as President. On Monday she motored from London specially to attend the club meeting. Meanwhile, her work accomplished in Luton, leader Miss Eleanor Garnett will be leaving during the next few weeks, having been appointed Y.W.C.A. organiser to the women's section of the Board of Agriculture.

  • Pte G. J. Bent, whose wife resides at 37 Langley Road, Luton, and who is the only son of Mr and Mrs G. Bent, of 34 Albion Road, has again been wounded. He had a gunshot wound through the left side on April 23rd last year, and was again wounded on October 8th, when he had slight shrapnel wounds in the hands and face. After being in hospital in France for three months he was drafted to Italy at the end of January and received his third wound on March 2nd, when he was hit in the back by a large piece of shell. He was later operated upon, and it was found that Pte Bent had a very narrow escape from much worse injuries, the wound being very near the spine.

  • Lutonians will be pleased to learn that Dr Robert D. Bell, of Dunstable Road, has returned to civilian life. He has resumed his practice which had been carried on for him during his absence on military duty by his medical colleagues in the town.

  • Last night, at a meeting of the Dunstable Town Council, various articles from the collection of the late Mr Worthington G. Smith were gratefully accepted from relatives. The chief gift was that of a fine drawing by the late Mr Smith of the front of the Priory Church. Mr Smith considered it to be the best sample of his work.

  • Forty German prisoners of war are expected to arrive at Offley Holes on Monday for work on the farms in the district. Through the efforts of the Herts War Agricultural Committee, prisoners are being sent to various agricultural camps in that county in order to assist in the increased food production effort.

  • The reduction in the supply of paper is so great that it has affected the size and price of almost every journal in the kingdom. If conditions do not improve, says the British Weekly, this reduction will proceed, and newspaper proprietors are seriously discussing news-less days. That is, they would agree not to publish on more than five days a week. We of the News and Telegraph would take this further opportunity of pressing for waste paper. Old newspapers can be re-pulped to make new paper, and in the same way old ledgers and all kinds of waste paper are now in demand by the mills for munitions and other purposes.

  • On the Town ground this afternoon, Luton met a team from the 3rd Bedfordshire Regiment stationed at Landguard and who included among their number Sgt Hubbard, a returned prisoner of war who had spent three years in captivity in Germany. Jones and Butcher (penalty) gave the Town a half-time lead, with Jones completing his hat-trick and scoring a fourth in the second half, and Butcher adding his second. The Bedfords had, however, put up a better show than the 6-1 scoreline suggested and faced their next big match in the final of the Felixstowe Garrison Cup.