Billeted soldier found with throat cut

Digest of stories from The Luton News: Thursday, December 17th, 1918.

At half-past even yesterday morning, a Biscot soldier made a terrible discovery. Billeted at the house of Mrs Clarke, 28 Dane Road, he found a comrade billeted at the same house dying with his throat cut in the lavatory.

There was a tremendous quantity of blood about the place, from a gaping wound in the throat. Aid was immediately summoned, but when Capt Dugon (R.A.M.C.), of the Royal Field Artillery Brigade, arrived on the scene he at once pronounced life extinct. The body was removed to Biscot.

Det-Sgt Bacon was also on the scene very quickly, and received from a soldier a blood-stained razor which had been found near the body. The circumstances obviously suggested suicide.

The deceased is Driver Percy Charles Perkins, of the R.F.A., and he hails from East Ham. A married man with two children, he had won the esteem and respect of his comrades and was most highly spoken of by the landlady. He was one of three billeted at the house.

An inquest will be held in due course.

  • There are now 27 Luton men being held in German hands, and their upkeep entails considerable expense on the Luton Borough Prisoners of War Committee. Over the past 18 months receipts amounted to £1,538 3s 9d, payments to £1,263 1s 1d, and the committee have now only a balance of £275 2s 8d. As the expenses of sending three parcels a fortnight to each prisoner, there entails a monthly outlay of about £70, it will be seen that the above amount will not go very far, and funds are urgently needed.

  • In the early hours of this morning a Luton family had a narrow escape in a fire at their residence, 131 Tennyson Road, Luton. Mr and Mrs D. Davis and their three children had retired to bed, leaving the remnants of the fire in the dining room grate. About three o'clock this morning Mr Davis was suddenly awakened by the noise of something falling, and smoke began to come into the bedroom. Hurrying downstairs he found the dining room table ablaze and hurried his family into a neighbour's house. The Fire Brigade arrived to find the room blazing furiously, and all they could do was swamp the room with water to prevent the fire spreading to other parts of the house. It is surmised that the cause of the fire was the falling of a brick from the back of the grate.

  • Lieut-Col E. W. Brighten, C.M.G., D.S.O., the popular and brilliant commander of the 1/5th Beds Regiment, has been transferred. The news will be received with unfeigned regret both in the regiment, the county and in Luton, which are justly proud of the gallant gentleman who led the regiment in its training and in its arduous experiences in Gallipoli and Palestine. The gallant officer leaves the Territorial Force for a line regiment, and the transfer may be regarded as a tribute to his sterling leadership. The good wishes of his regiment and the county which knows him so well will accompany him wherever his lot.

  • We announce with much pleasure that Lieut Maynard Tomson, son of Mr and Mrs R. S. Tomson, Bedford House, New Bedford Road, Luton, has been awarded the Military Cross. He joined the Honourable Artillery Company immediately war broke out, and in the following month he was on the battlefield in France. Later he was invalided home with frostbite but was soon under arms again, and transferred to the Royal Engineers with whom he has been ever since.

  • Major R. H. Giblett, who before the war was a prominent member of the technical staff of Vauxhall Motors Ltd, was one of the officers recently mentioned in Sir Douglas Haig's despatches. From a subaltern in the Royal Engineers, he transferred to the Army Service Corps as an inspector of Mechanical Transport and is at present commanding an important technical unit in France.

  • News is to hand of the death of Sec-Lieut Frank Hampson, who was formerly manager of Pearks' Stores on Market Hill before he left for Liverpool three years ago. He was at that time Hon Sec to the Luton branch of the Shop Assistants' Union. Ten years ago he was President of the Luton Trades Council, and was one of the founders and first President of the Luton Labour Club.

  • News has been received by his parents of the death of Pte William Hillyard, of 55 Beech Road, Luton. On going to France last July, he was transferred to the Highland Light Infantry, and it was in the action at Cambrai he met his death on November 29th.

  • Pte William Potts, of 90 Langley Road, Luton, was wounded for the second time last October and is now convalescing at a hospital in Swanley, Kent. He has seen considerable service with the Bedfordshire Regiment, and was wounded two years ago while serving with a different battalion in Egypt. He has now been seriously wounded in the leg and arm in France, but is getting about with the aid of crutches.

  • Mr John Crawley, son of Mr and Mrs W. Crawley, baker, Langley Street, Luton, has just been elected Mayor of Swan River, a important business centre in Manitoba, Canada. Before going to Canada he was a well-known member of the Luton Liberal Club. He is a constant reader of The Luton News.

  • The Biscot men are very appreciative of the generosity of Mr Stewart Hubbard juts now. The gentleman, in addition to providing the extension of the concert hall at the Victoria Hut, has defrayed the cost of the new cinema screen, the Christmas entertainments, the three recent concerts given by the Three Arts Clubs, and also the gas for the cinema shows.

  • A resolution concerning the constitution of the Luton Food Committee was passed by the local Trades and Labour Council at its annual meeting on Tuesday evening. Mr Willet Ball presided over a large attendance of delegates. There was a spirited discussion at the end of which the following resolution was carried: "The Luton Trades and Labour Council, being the representative body of organised labour, in view of the suspicion and distrust prevailing among the general public, justified by the fact that sitting upon the Committee are persons engaged in the provision trade, demands that the Town Council should at once reconstruct the Food Committee in order that Labour shall have six representatives, two of whom shall be women." Six names have been sent in with this resolution.