Stories from the Beds & Herts Telegraph: July 12th, 1915.

There is to be another flag day in Luton on Wednesday next - this time in aid of the French Relief Fund. The main objects of this fund, which is under the high patronage of French President Raymond Poincaré, are to give British assistance to the French victims of the war, and especially to alleviate the terrible distress caused by the inhuman conduct of the Germans to ill-clad, suffering and homeless women and children of the devastated provinces of France.

Luton had its Belgian Day some time ago, it has had its Loyalty Day for local war charities, and it has had its second Alexandra Day. All these have been very successful. But the claims of our nearest ally have not yet received any public recognition in Luton, although France is a country with which Luton is very closely connected by commercial ties as well as the common bond now uniting the countries in their fight against the German hordes.

Street collectors will be under eight captains who will each have about 16 collectors. Everybody will be expected to surrender something, if only a penny, in exchange for a tricolour badge. With now not so many soldiers in town, the organisers do not expect to raise the £200-odd of Alexandra Day but are aiming at £100.

• Cpl Charles Griffiths, a motorcycle despatch rider who had been fined £5 with £2.1s costs for dangerous driving at Round Green, resulting in three people being knocked down, appeared before Borough magistrates again this morning for non-payment. A lieutenant who attended the court said the corporal was without means and could not spare him if he was sent to prison, but the Chief Constable claimed the money would have been paid but for interference by military officers. The Bench sentenced him to six weeks in prison if he failed to pay 10s a week out of his 22s a week pay, all found.

• "I see they are going to finish the war now with aeroplanes," writes Pte A. C. Smith, of C Company, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, to his father and mother, who live at 25 Buxton Road, Luton. "I hope they soon finish it with something or other. Things are a bit quiet at present, but we have bags to do. I have just got used to it. I don't care if it rains or snows now - keep on smiling and cheer up."

• Yesterday morning an alarming collision occurred in Church Street between a military waggon and a Corporation cart. It appears that the military waggon, attached to two horses belonging to the 2nd North Midland Division A.B.C. and containing only the driver, was standing in Vicarage Street when the horses took fright at a passing traction engine. They immediately bolted into Holly Walk, knocking down a lamppost, and continued their mad dash down St Mary's Road and into a Corporation waggon standing outside the depot in Church Street. The impact broke the shafts of the Corporation waggon but the military waggon escaped damage. Both drivers and horses had a miraculous escape.

• This afternoon in the charming grounds of Alderman H. O. Williams, residence at Farley Lynches, Chapel Street [now Farley Hill], was held a garden party in aid of the Bedfordshire Prisoners of War Help Fund. There were alfresco concerts on the lawn, and Swedish dancing by pupils of the Modern School. There were various competitions, and the band of the 2/5th Lincolns played selections of music.

• A nasty accident occurred yesterday at the Co-operative Cocoa Works. It appears that Frederick Walker, a labourer of 18 Liverpool Road, was working with a foreman moving some boards on the second storey when he fell down a stairway on to the first floor. He sustained a fracture of the collar bone and was taken unconscious to the Bute Hospital. He is now in No. 1 ward in a rather bad condition.

• As far as Luton Town FC is concerned, no decision has yet been arrived at to provide some sort of competition football in the coming season, but on Monday night the directors will meet to consider the position. There will doubtless be considerable difficulty in arranging regular matches, but we have no doubt [said the Telegraph] that those professional players remaining in Luton will not hesitate if they get a chance of a game, even though they cannot receive a fee. Many are engaged on war work, and there must be no interference with the production of munitions. Neither may spectators be attracted from their work, but the question arises if it would not be beneficial to munition workers to get an afternoon's respite, and it is certain that hundreds of them would plump for football as the best means of recreation.