Lady Alice Wernher, as she was known throughout the period of the First World War, was not only the lady of the manor of Luton with her country residence at Luton Hoo, she was also one of the town's biggest benefactors.

Almost every charitable list included her name among the donors, be it meat and vegetables for local hospitals, uniforms for the Luton Volunteer Training Corps, ambulances for the Red Cross at the front, gifts for front-line troops, or paying for buildings in Luton to be converted for military purposes such as hospitals.

Mary Anne Green, centre, flanked by her daughters who all worked at Wardown V.A.D. hospital during WW1. 

When she was 65, Mary Anne Green, wife of the Brewery Director John Willam Green, became Joint Commandant of Wardown V.A.D. hospital. She served in this role from 1915 - 1919. She is often referred to as 'Mrs J.W. Green' as per convention of the time i.e. she is the wife of John William green.

From 09/1914 to 25/03/1919, Nora Durler (nee Cumberland) was the Joint Commandant of Wardown VAD Hospital Luton, responsible for its management and supervising its administration. The other Commandant was her auntie, Mrs Green.

She was a member of an old distinguised Luton family, the Cumberlands, and married into the Durlers who were a family of Swiss plait merchants who emmigrated to Luton to be close to the pulse of the hat trade.

The 1911 Census shows she was married to Robert Durler, a plait merchant, and had a daughter, Pauline, born in 1910.

Stewart Butler Hubbard, the newest member of Luton Town Council following his election in North Ward on Monday, November 2nd, 1914, was described by The Luton News as a man whose business history would "rank among what may be termed the romances of the straw trade".

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