Digest of stories from The Luton News: Thursday, January 24th, 1918.

A spirited controversy on the attitude of Luton employers to discharged men arose at a meeting of the local branch of the Discharged Soldiers and Sailors Federation, held at the Franklin Restaurant on Tuesday evening. Mr H. Booth presided.

The Chairman announced that a propaganda scheme for organising the men in Beds, Herts and Bucks was to be carried out. The [rival] Comrades of the Great War movement was not alive as far as they were concerned, nor was the Federation going to allow it to be so.

Mr Cooper, the Federation's new Secretary in succession to Mr Suttle who had resigned following his appointment to the local War Pensions Committee, reported a membership of 181 (the Comrades had only 42). Several members had complained about their treatment from several firms in the town. In one case a man was taken ill on a Thursday and had to go home. On the Saturday he was discharged on the spot without wages.

Mr Walker commenced the discussion by denying that there was any justification for giving Luton employers a bad name. There were two sides to every question, as he had found out in making inquiries about some discharged men.

If a discharged man thought he could do as he liked at his work, he was wrong. The people of Luton were doing more for discharged men than in any other place he knew.

The speech aroused a storm of opposition before the Chairman ruled that a public discussion on an individual case was most inadvisable at present, and the meeting agreed to let it first go before the executive for further investigation.

• There have been several accidents in various local works this week. A youth names Fred Scoates, of 70 Burr Street, is in the Bute Hospital with an injury to the nose sustained on Monday morning while at work on a drill at the factory of the Skefko Ball Bearing Co. Bertram Higgs, of 73 Ashton Road, had two fingers severed and the back of his hand severely lacerated when it caught in the gearing of an automatic machine at the Biscot Road works of Messrs George Kent. And Leonard Whitehead, of 10 Salisbury Road, has also lost a finger as a result of his hand catching in a cog-wheel at the Diamond Foundry yesterday morning.

• An object of interest in Kimpton was the journey through the village on Saturday evening of an aeroplane on a motor lorry. It had passed over the village during the mroning, flying very low, and was forced to come down near Whiteway House. In its descent it suffered some damage, but fortunately the pilot escaped injury.

• A pretty wedding was solemnised at Chapel Street Wesleyan Church on Tuesday morning between Miss Daisy Winifred Hudson, second daughter of Mr and Mrs E. W. Hudson, of The Cottage, West Hill Road, and Sapper Herbert Axtell, eldest son of Mr and Mrs A. Axtell, of Biscot Road. The Superintendent Minister, the Rev J. A. Clapperton, officiated.

• A quiet wedding took place at Park Town Primitive Methodist Chapel on Saturday, the contracting parties being Pte Sam Parker, of 21 Bailey Street, and Miss E. Clarke, of 65 Queen Street. The Rev C. Jennings officiated.

• At King's Walden Parish Church on Thursday, many local people witnessed a sequal to a happy war-time romance. The occasion was the wedding of Pte Leonard William Fleckney (Beds Regiment), third son of Mr and Mrs John Fleckney, Darley Hall, and Miss Ethel Mabel Thorpe, second daughter of Mr and Mrs Charles Walter Thorpe, of Dovercourt. Pte Fleckney is soon to return to the Front, while his bride is to carry on her work as a war hospital nurse at Tooting.

• Driver Charles Mayhew (Royal Field Artillery), late of Fressingfield, Suffolk, recently died at 54 Hampton Road, Luton, after being invalided home exactly 12 months from an illness contracted in service at Mons, Marne, Ypres and La Bassee. By his own wish he was buried in Biscot Churchyard, an impressive service being conducted by the Rev S. H. Collins (Vicar). Full military honours were accorded, the coffin covered with the Union Jack being borne on a gun carriage. The buglers and firing party were from Biscot.

• Among the sad notifications reaching Luton this week was one to Mr and Mrs J. Medcalf, of 33 Ashton Street, from the Record Office at Warley informing them that their son, Pte Sidney Medcalf (Norfolk Regiment), had been killed in action on the 15th inst in Mesopotamia. Pte Medcalf was only 19 last birthday and in pre-war days was employed at the Diamond Foundry.

• Deep regret has been occasioned in local Salvationist circles by the new that Pte Walter Alfred Horwood (Essex Regiment) was killed in action on December 3rd. An official intimation has been received by his widow, Mrs Martha Horwood, of 48 Stanley Street. For 22 years he had been a bandsman of the Salvation Army Luton Temple Band and played the trombone. A memorial service has been held at the Temple.

• Mews has just been received that Pte Alfred George Titmuss, son of Mr and Mrs George |Titmuss, of 40 Milton Road, Luton, who last April was reported missing at Arras, has been killed. Nothing more had been heard of him until the arrival of the official notification of his death.

• After nine months of terrible anxiety, Mrs Maskell, of 168 Dallow Road, Luton, has heard that her husband, Pte Stanley George Maskell (Essex Regiment), who was reported missing on April 28th, 1917, was killed on that date.

• The death has taken place from the effects of shell shock of Sgt Stanley Gwilym Tooth, son of QMS Tooth, of Luton and Shoeburyness. He was aged 27 and had seen 13 years continuous service, and was with the Royal Garrison Artillery in France for 11 months. The body was brought to Luton and buried with military honours yesterday afternoon. A widow is left.

• Mrs Pedder, who now lives at 95 Cambridge Street, Luton, would be pleased to receive information as to the whereabouts of her husband, Pte William Pedder (Royal Fusiliers), who was reported wounded and missing in France on November 30th last. [Pte Pedder was later confirmed killed on that date.]

• After spending four Christmases in France, Pte John Burley (Beds Regiment), whose home is at 71 Warwick Road, Luton, contracted trench feet and was invalided to England some weeks ago. It was found necessary to amputate the lower part of his right leg, but he is now progressing favourably in hospital at Bury St Edmunds.

• Mr Pickering, the Surveyor for the Rural District, has done good service calling attention to the discomforts and risks to which men are sometimes exposed when going for medical examination. We have heard many stories, relating to different places, of the intense discomfort which men have had to endure whilst waiting for examination, and, though the doctors themselves may not have been directly responsible, it seems a pit that they have not insisted upon better arrangements being made. A man does not necessarily lose his right to decent treatment because he happens to be of military age.