Stories from The Luton News: Thursday, October 21st, 1915.

The local recruiting committee has already set to work to establish the machinery necessary for carrying out the recruiting scheme of Lord Derby. The Emergency Committee met at the Town Hall on Monday night to have a preliminary discussion and tonight there will be a full meeting of the committee to hear about the local scheme in detail with suggestions for carrying it out. The work will soon be in hand, because it has to be completed by November 30th.

Under the scheme every man aged 18 to 41 whose name had remained 'unstarred' [not on essential Government war work] on the pink forms completed recently under the recent National Registration Act is to be personally canvassed in order to obtain recruits for the Army to serve during the war.

The work would be carried out by civilian canvassers above recruitable age, or otherwise excused from enlistment, who would be of persons of discretion, carefully chosen, who can be relied upon to approach the men with tact, and to treat as confidential all matters of a private nature. Railway warrants for those willing to enlist at once will be supplied in advance.

The Press also published a letter (right) from King George V appealing for more men to enlist voluntarily.

• Terribly sad is the death of Pte Harry Gillman, 2nd Bedford Regiment, of 21 Ash Road, Luton. He had only been married a few weeks when he was drafted to the Front from the Duke of Bedford's Training Depot at Ampthill. A letter to his wife from a comrade revealed how Pte Gillman had met his death at Loos on September 27th.

• Mrs Kate Cox, of 10 Tavistock Street, Luton, has received notification of the death in Egypt from dysentry of her husband, Pte John Cox, who joined the Army Service Corps at Woolwich in August 1914 and went to the Dardanelles.

• Mrs Mary White, of 109 Highbury Road, Luton, has been officially notified that her husband, Pte Ernest White, R.A.M.C., has been killed in action. He was 28 years of age.

• Official notification has been received by Mrs Hawkes, of 10 Tavistock Street, Luton of the death of her husband, Pte Albert Hawkes, 2nd Bedford Regiment, from gunshot wounds while serving in France. He died on September 29th, his 30th birthday.

• Mr A. Snoxell, of 84 Grange Road, Luton, has been officially informed that his son, Pte Cyril Snoxell, 3099, 1/5th Bedfords, previously reported wounded and missing, is now reported wounded and missing, believed killed.

• It is officially reported that Pte Robert Watson, 9652, King's Company, 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, died from wounds on October 12th. He was wounded on September 29th, a piece of shrapnel hitting him in the back.

• Wounds resulting in the amputation of a leg have been sustained by Pte E. 'Neddy' Currant, who is now in hospital at Alexandria. He is a widower with a family of five, and his father and mother live at 143 Castle Street.

• Pte Thomas Osborne, 5016, 1/5th Bedfords, whose home address is 7 Stockingstone Road, Luton, was wounded in action on September 26th, and is now in hospital at Malta, suffering from a gunshot wound in the head.

• News has been received by Mrs E. King, of 7 Gaitskill Row, that her son, Pte A. Smith, 4648, 1/5th Bedfords, was admitted to hospital at Cairo on September 29th, suffering from bullet wounds in the head and back.

• Percy Smith, from Stopsley, writes from the 19th General Hospital at Alexandria that dysentry has left him a bit weak and "as thin as a bit of matchwood".

• Luton Town Council decided at a special meeting on Tuesday evening to apply immediately to the Home Office for an order under the Defence of the Realm Regulations for controlling public and private lighting in the town.

• The occasion of the harvest festival at Biscot Parish Church on Sunday was also that of a visit by the Bishop of St Albans (Dr Jacob) to consecrate the extension of the churchyard, which is just over 1¼ acres and has all been enclosed by voluntary labour. It was an imposing procession from the church to the scene of the consecration.

• Extraordinary losses of cheques passing through the post were reported at the meeting of Luton Chamber of Commerce on Friday evening to have occurred of late, and Mr Seebohm (Barclay & Co) wrote asking the Chamber to take action to secure an inquiry. It appeared that all the banks in the town had loss of cheques to report, and several members stated that some of their outward cheques had failed to reach their destination. It was also reported that of 20 inward cheques sent by one firm not one had been delivered.

• It has been current in the town that land had been bought locally for Ford Motor Works. This is hardly correct, but we are able to say that a site has been bought in Dunstable Road, on the Newcombe estate between Lincoln Road and Stratford Road, for the erection of a wholesale depot with a 200 ft frontage for Ford Cars. The purchasers are Bates Motor Works Ltd, Ford wholesalers for Bedfordshire and surrounding counties. It is anticipated that the Luton depot will become their largest enterprise.

• The movement in the plait trade for the abolition of Christmas boxes last year was unsuccessful owing to the want of co-operation in certain other sections of the trade. These difficulties, it is now believed, have been overcome, and a strenuous attempt will be made to abolish once and for all the system throughout the trade. The Materials Merchants Section [of the Chamber of Commerce] propose to follow last year's precedent and give no Christmas boxes, and to continue this in future.

• Bombardier Harry Crew, of the Royal Garrison Artillery, a Lutonian serving with the British Expeditionary Force, France, and now home on leave, was married at Leytonstone Parish Church on October 14th to Miss Margaret Trim, of Leytonstone. The couple had previously served under the Luton Board of Guardians as a nurse and a porter.