Diary: Gallipoli casualties 'not as great as anticipated'

 

Stories from The Luton News: Thursday, September 9th, 1915.

At the parade of the Luton Volunteer Corps in Luton Hoo Park on Sunday morning the Commandant (Mr H. Cumberland Brown) made reference to the losses sustained by the 1/5th Bedfordshires in Gallipoli and suggested that a vote of sympathy with those bereaved should be passed.

Company Commander Harry Inwards said he was sure it was an entirely fitting thing for them, "the boys of the old brigade," to express sympathy with the relatives of those "boys of the young brigade" who had so gallantly fallen whilst fighting for them at home.

But he was glad to be able to say that the casualties were not so great as had been anticipated in the first instance. From a despatch he had received from headquarters he gathered that up to the present the total number killed in the whole battalion was 33 and the number of wounded about 192. It was feared that many more than that had fallen in the service of their country, but he was happy to say that it was not so.

  • The death took place in the Bute Hospital on Monday of Gunner Thomas Hodgson, 8th Lancs Battery, RFA, who was taken ill a few days earlier while quartered in one of the huts at the Biscot Mill camp. Deceased, who was 26 years of age, was a native of Liverpool, and was a clerk in the Japanese Consulate at Liverpool before enlisting. On Tuesday the body was conveyed by rail to Liverpool for interment, the father and mother of the deceased accompanying it. Military honours were given to the deceased. A gun carriage from his battery was used to convey the coffin, draped in a Union Jack, from Messrs T. and E. Neville's mortuary to the Midland Station, and bearers and firing party were in attendance.

  • Mr and Mrs Robert Jefferson, of 13 Duke Street, Luton, have two sons fighting and three in training. Eldest son Arthur Robert, 25, is a sapper with the East Anglian RE stationed in Brightlingsea; next son Charles Timothy, 23 was with the 1st Beds, with whom he was wounded but was able to return to the trenches; third son William, 21, is with the 2/5th Bedfords stationed at Newmarket; fourth son Walter, 20, is with the 1/5th Bedfords at the Dardanelles; and youngest son John, 19, is with the North Stafford RFA at Leighton Buzzard.

  • More interesting than the business transacted in open Council on Tuesday evening is the news which leaked out on Wednesday morning that, sitting in committee, the members of the Council decided that the Mayor for 1915-16 is to be Alderman J. H. Staddon. Mr Staddon has been a member of the Council since November 1st, 1900, and will take office on November 9th.

  • A the meeting of the Town Council plans were passed for extensions to the works of George Kent Ltd, Vauxhall Motors Ltd, Thermo-Electric Ore Reduction Corporation Ltd and T. Lye and Sons.

  • Newspapers banned from the Public Library were to be reinstated, Luton Town Council decided by 12 votes to eight. Three Northcliffe newspapers, The Daily Mail, The Times and the Evening Standards had been banned in June over their attacks on Lord Kitchener. The Libraries Committee had not wanted the ban and left the matter to be decided by the full Council. Councillor Briggs proposed the reinstatement, claiming the Council was depriving a portion of the reading community of the newspapers which they undoubtedly demanded, and were deliberately restricting reading to one point of view.

  • Luton Choral Society has come out its state of suspended animation, and there is the prospect of at least one concert being given this season. A November concert is in view, but there was the possibility that the extinguishing of the street lamps at an early hour might also extinguish the chorus, it was suggested at the Society's annual meeting in the Town Hall on Monday. Some members present seemed to have the idea that ladies might be "afraid to go home in the dark" from the rehearsals.

  • On behalf of the Luton Red Cross Band the Secretary has written to the Town Council pointing out the financial difficulties of the band, and asking the Council to give assistance similar to that given some years ago - a grant of £25 a year. The band had ordered new instruments to the value of £200 in July 1914, but war broke out a month later and they still owed £155. The band was now labouring under a difficulty of getting money. The letter was passed to the Finance Committee for consideration.

  • Luton now has postwomen for the first time for two ladies have just been appointed to deliver letters in place of men who are now serving with the Colours.