What was happening in Luton?
This page contains a list of events that occured in Luton and surroundings 1914-1919, as well as global events that affected Luton's people.
When you add an ancestor to this site, it is always a good idea to try and connect them to an 'event' that happened in their life. E.g. if they fought at the Battle of the Somme, then you can make this connection on the 'Add Person' form.
[Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph: March 22nd, 1919]
The century-old Luton timber firm of Henry Brown & Sons returned to private ownership on March 22nd, 1919, after the business had been commandeered by the Ministry of Munitions during the war. The Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph (March 15th) reported:
An interesting occasion was that at Wardown V.A.D. Hospital on Tuesday evening [May 20th, 1919]. After years of magnificent service throughout the war in tending the sick and wounded soldiers back to health and strength, the time had come to part from these war associations.
Saturday July 19th 1919 was a national day of celebrations. In Luton, events started with a procession to the Town Hall from Luton Hoo. Nearly 20,000 people enjoyed sports and entertainment at Wardown. No one could have foreseen how the day would end.
The Peace Day celebrations of July 1919 in which the Town Hall was burned down are notorious in Luton's history – and an event the town seemed to want to forget for decades afterwards.
It was popularly believed that after Mayor Henry Impey fled his seven-hour ordeal of being barricaded in Luton Town Hall during the Peace Day riots on July 19th, 1919, that he never returned to the town.
Luton's tank, presented to the town in recognition of the support accorded to the War Savings movement, is to be placed in Wardown Park in company with a naval gun captured from the Germans in Palestine by the 1/5th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, reported The Luton News of February 5th
World War One ammunition resulted in a catastrophic explosion that rocked Luton – but it happened 21 months after the Great War had ended.
A little group of men stood by the side of a fence near the scene of the Kingsway factory destruction, and it was amongst those that a Telegraph representative discovered some of the survivors of the original explosion.
Four years had passed since the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 when the Armistice had brought an end to the most horrific conflict in human history.
I am writing the History of Waste in Luton from 1850 to 2009, which, of course, includes this history during WW1. I was Head of Waste Management at Luton Borough Council from 1996 until I retired in 2009, having been employed in a wide variety of posts within the Cleansing Division since Februar
During WW2 George Kent Ltd made torpedoes. Horace Dall was chief flow meter designer. During his time there he was called in by the MOD to identify bits from German V1 found in the UK and to thus give his oppinion of some of the V1's likely performance ch