Diary: Family lose a second son

 

From The Luton News, April 22nd, 1915.

A second son of Mr and Mrs Henry Smart, of 92 Bury Park Road, Luton, has officially been reported killed in action. The War Office said Acting Corporal Henry George Smart, 7018, 1st Battalion North Staffordshire Regiment, died near Armentieres on March 21st.

Cpl Henry SmartA reservist whose time would have expired last November, he was aged 28 and had served eight years in the Army in India. Until the outbreak of war he was working for bleacher and dyer Mr J. L. Frenay-Pirotte, of Leagrave Road, where his father was working for 28 years.

On October 26th, 1914, another of the couple's sons, Pte Albert Smart, aged 22, was killed in action. A third son was serving as a sergeant in the 5th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment.

  • Pte William Smith, 9040, 1st Battalion Beds Regt, now a prisoner of war in Munster, Westphalia, wrote to his parents at 73 North Street, Luton, asking for food. He requested some tin bread, margarine, cheese or anything filling that he would pay for on his return home. Cigarette papers were also useful as he could sell them to buy bread.

  • M. Vandener Ghel, a Belgian soldier on sick leave, is staying with Mr H. Shane at London Road, with whom he had previously worked. He fought at Liege, where his regiment lost about half its strength, and later at Aerschot, where he was the only one of a party of 35 to escape.

  • Pte G. Bavister, a Luton man serving in France in the Mechanical Transport section of the Army Service Corps attached to the North Midland Division Ammunition Park, wrote to Luton Amateur Swimming Club co-secretary Mr F. C. Webdale said the Officer Commanding had congratulated the 1st North Midland Division on comparing very favourably with the Regular Army.

  • A private with D Company, 1/5th Battalion, Beds Regt, wrote of marching with "swank" into Norwich from Bury St Edmunds. With full pack and 120 rounds of ammunition per man, they had marched 12 miles the first day, 14 the next and 16 on the third to get to Norwich.

  • The following have enlisted into the Regular Army through the recruiting office at the Luton Corn Exchange: T. Brandon, C. Cavener, W. Cooper, J. Dawson, E. Denton, E. Ellis, G. W. Glover, G. T. Goodenough, G. A. Harley, S. J. Kitchener and W. H. Scrivener. Into the 2nd 5th Battalion Beds Regt: P. Baldwin, C. Flemons, E. Mason, H. Oakley, H. Plummer and M. Rathbone(Luton), S. Fensome (Dunstable), E. Burgess (Markyate) and S. Scott (Harpenden).

  • A distinct need among the soldiers is being filled among the men of the North Midland Royal Engineers at Round Green by the workers of the Church Mission Hall. The comfortable building is thrown open each evening and about 200 men attend. They are supplied with notepaper, envelopes, reading matter and the free use of a gramophone.

  • The April fair was held at Luton on Monday when the Market Hill, Park Square and Park Street were filled with various amusement devices for old and young. The following day two men were fined at the Borough Court for being drunk and disorderly during the event.

  • Donations in Luton to the Prince of Wales' National Relief Fund totalled £2,686 2s 1d at March 31st, 1915.

  • Several more of Lady Wernher's gifts to the Red Cross sale were disposed on on Tuesday. A rose-diamond brooch designed as a vase of flowers reached £34, and eleven lots among the articles of virtu produced a total of over £144, and emerald portrait of a lady wearing a white dress, blue scarf and crimson cloak, signed Kanz, fetching 25 guineas. Articles to be offered today include some Limoges enamels given by Lady Wernher.

  • A pair-horse wagon driven by Pte Housden, 2/5th Lincolns, went out of control, knocking down a tree and damaging fencing in from of 245-247 Park Street, Luton.

  • The £36 profit made by the Luton Amateur Dramatic Society from their production of Where Is William? at the Grand Theatre was to be divided between the League of Mercy and the local Relief Fund.

  • A serious diphtheria epidemic at Stopsley was reported at a meeting of Luton Rural District Council. Eighteen cases had occurred in Bury Road [St Thomas's Road] alone. Several cases were removed to the Isolation Hospital, and houses were disinfected, Sunday schools and day schools had been closed.

  • A letter from the Great Northern Railway informed Dunstable Town Council that the Sunday train service between Church Street Station and the L&NW Railway Station had been so poorly patronised that it would be cancelled from April 4th. The council regretted the company's decision and asked that the service be given another six months' trial.

  • Luton's tram service was described as "a public scandal," a "slip-shod service" and "a disgrace" at a meeting of the Town Council. Councillors who wanted repairs to the seven-year-old track were told there was a problem caused by a scarcity of men, but Mayor Councillor Henry Impey blamed low wages for the scarcity - a conductor was paid 4d an hour and a driver 5d, whereas a labourer in the streets could command 5½d an hour. And Councillor Bone thought four or five of the 12 £500 trams were standing in the depot doing nothing yet the service between London Road and Wardown was "most abominable".