Diary: First news arrives of Gallipoli casualties

 

Stories from The Luton News: Thursday, August 26th, 1915.

After news of an early wounded casualty suffered by the 1/5th Bedfords at Gallipoli appeared in the Saturday Telegraph at the weekend, The Luton News carried details of the first two Luton men known to have been killed in action - Capt Brian Clarke Cumberland and Pte Cyril Bert Barton.

Capt Cumberland (pictured right) was the only son of auctioneer and surveyor Mr Hugh Cumberland, of 'The Lynchet,' Hart Hill, Luton, and was killed on August 15th, aged 26. He received his captaincy in 1914.

Pte Barton, 8120, was the son of Mr and Mrs Edward Barton, of 15 Brache Street, Luton. The former moulder employed by Messrs Brown and Green, Windsor Street, was reported from the 3rd Echelon, Alexandria, Egypt, to have died from wound received in action on August 17th.

Among the other casualties was First-Lieut Christopher R. James, brother-in-law of Commanding Officer Lieut-Col Edgar Brighten, who was wounded on August 16th. Col Brighten's wife was living in Lansdowne Road, Luton.

It is very evident from these casualties that the 1/5th Beds have been engaged in recent operations on the Gallipoli peninsular and further details will therefore be awaited with with the greatest interest, said The Luton News.

  • Company Sgt-Major W. J. Lewzey, of 41 Beech Road, Luton, and son of Mr and Mrs Lewzey, of 63 Dumfries Street, is one of the recruits to the 1/5th Bedfordshires personally won by Lieut-Col Brighten. He had spent 12 years in the Middlesex Regt, ten of them in India, and held corporal's rank when he left the Army. On joining the Bedfords he was given his old rank of corporal and a fortnight later became sergeant. Shortly before leaving for the Front he exchanged his stripes for a crown and is therefore Company Sgt-Major. He also acts as assistant to the Regimental Sgt-Major.

  • A supplement to the London Gazette on Monday evening announced that the King has been graciously pleased to award the Victoria Cross to Capt Charles Calveley Foss, 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, for most conspicuous bravery at Neuve Chapelle on March 12th, 1915. He and eight men faced off of more than five to one, and under a heavy fire captured a position of took over 50 Germans prisoner.

  • Mr Robert Jefferson, of 13 Duke Street, has received a letter from Pte F. Cowlishaw, a North Stafford man serving at the Front with the 1/6th Battalion North Stafford Regiment who were billeted in High Town. He wrote: "We have now been in the firing line six months and I have lost some of my best mates. The other day the Germans squirted vitriol across the trenches and then made a charge. It was a sight I shall never forget. Kitchener's King's Royal Rifles were badly cut up. We lost the trench, but as soon as the supports got up, the Notts and Derbys took it back again, so I think in the finish we gained a bit. Without a big move we shall be out all winter, and you know it is bad then but, never mind, we are out here for a win."

  • Sgt Stokes has been in charge of the recruiting office of the 3/5th Beds Regiment (T) at the Corn Exchange and since the 9th of August has enlisted the following recruits: Stanley Oakley, Horace Clements, Henry Sanders, Albert Smart, Bruce Hyde, Walter Lawson, Thomas Smart, Claude Sinfield and John Sivea, all of Luton, Sidney Clarke, of Bradford, and Stanley Deverell, Eaton Bray.

  • The following men have enlisted at the Corn Exchange in Kitchener's Army: W. G. Muckleston (Sundon), G. Albone, H. Lister, S. Taylor, E. C. Holdstock, W. W. Gazeley, C. Gutteridge, W. E. Gore, C. Lack and J. Weedon (Luton), A. E. Hill (Northants), T. Smith (Leighton Buzzard).

  • Ten members of the 3/5th Beds Regt at Bear's Rail Camp, Great Park, Windsor, sent a letter: "To the inhabitants of Luton, would some kind reader or readers oblige us with a football, which we are greatly in need of, as we have no kind of amusement other than cards, and we have a lot of time to pass away after parades - ten Luton boys in one tent."

  • A second appeal for a football came from Gunner G. Reynolds, 1493, one of seven Lutonians serving with the North Midland Division in France. He wrote: "When we have done our duty a nice game of football is quite cheering, and it takes the monotonous hours of the day away. I am a hairdresser by trade when at home, and we are giving the Germans close shaves instead of me giving my comrades them."

  • From Pte A. J. Ford came a letter of thanks for mouth organs sent out for himself and the Luton lads. "We shall be able to have some jolly evenings, especially in the winter," he wrote.

  • At St Mary's Parish Church on Monday the marriage took place of Cpl Walter Warren, of the Eastern Mounted Brigade Field Ambulance, son of Mr and Mrs John Warren, of 34 Baker Street, Luton, and Miss Alice Sarah Sale, fourth daughter of Mr and Mrs George Sale, of Chesham House, 19 Brook Street.

  • As a result of an appeal for subscriptions for Wardown Hospital, the Luton branch of the British Red Cross Society acknowledged a new total of £145 9s 6d.

  • The Master and Matron of Luton Workhouse were granted a £25 honorarium by the Board of Guardians on Monday for their extra work during the nearly 12 months that the military had occupied part of the house. Troops who left there last Saturday were unstinting in their praise and said they had never been in a better billet since the war began. The institution received £530 from the military occupation.

  • The Rev F. Hall, the Superintendent of the Chapel Street Wesleyan Circuit for the past three years, bade farewell to his friends at Chapel Street on Sunday evening, having preached at Dallow Road in the morning. Mr and Mrs Hall on Monday left for a holiday before taking up new work at Nottingham.

  • Advert: Caretaker required for Leagrave Infants School. Salary £17 12s per annum.