Diary: Murder case goes to Assizes

 

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Stories from the Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph: October 9th, 1915.

Gunner Henry Charles Martin, Royal Garrison Artillery, was committed for trial at Bedfordshire Assizes on the capital charge of the wilful murder of his wife, Amy Martin, at 6 Queen Square, Luton, on Monday, October 4th. He appeared before magistrates in Luton this morning.

The court had heard how Gunner Martin stabbed his wife in the throat and immediately surrendered himself to police. The defence claimed there was great provocation after it was revealed that Mrs Martin was having an affair with a member of the Lincoln Regt who had been billeted at her father's home. They would be seeking to have the case treated as one of manslaughter.

An inquest jury on Friday had returned a verdict of wilful murder but they believed Martin had received "very great provocation".

  • South Beds Recruiting Committee heard that the result of the previous weekend's rally was that 50 recruits had presented themselves at the various offices, including for the Regular Army and the 3/5th Bedfords. However, to keep up its share of the 50,000 weekly demand for men, the area needed to find 78 recruits each week.

  • Labourers employed at one of the local munition works have written to Mr Harry Inwards, Secretary of the Recruiting Committee, asking him why they had not received war badges to identify them as being involved in Government war work. They thought they ought to be recognised as well as the mechanics, because the latter could not do without them and their work was as important at that of the mechanics. It made it very unpleasant as they walked about, as they were constantly troubled by recruiting agents asking them to enlist.

  • Sgt Arthur Woodcroft, R.A.M.C., who survived the sinking of the torpedoed troopship Royal Edward in the Aegean Sea by clinging to a piece of wood for five hours, had been home at 73 Ivy Road, Luton, on a few days' leave. He told how he had shaken hands in the water with a young comrade who later drowned, and had brought home his watch, which stopped at 9.20, the time the vessel sank. He was later wounded by shrapnel while on the ship that rescued him.

  • The sympathy of all Lutonians will be extended to Mr and Mrs Murdoch, of 9 Conway Road, Luton, who have just received word that their son Pte Peter Murdoch, aged 20, has been killed in action in France with the 17th London Regiment. He had been an apprentice in the pattern shop at the Diamond Foundry under his father.

  • Mr and Mrs Smith, of 58 New Town Street, Luton, have been unofficially notified from Gallipoli of the death of their son Pte Alfred Smith, 1/5th Bedfords. He was one of five sons and a son-in-law with the Colours. Pte Herbert Smith, a second son with the 1/5th Bedfords, is in hospital in Malta suffering from blood poisoning.

  • Mr and Mrs George Worker, of 87 Warwick Road, Luton, have been officially notified that their second son, Sapper Richard 'Dick' Worker, 1/2nd East Anglian Royal Engineers, was killed in action in Gallipoli on September 21st. He would have celebrated his 20th birthday last Wednesday.

  • Not all the sad news from the Gallipoli Peninsular is a result of bloodshed. Pte William George Ibbett, the eldest son of Mr and Mrs J. T. Ibbett, of Warwick Road, Luton, have been informed that he had passed away peacefully on the hospital ship Guildford Castle from pneumonia. He had been buried at sea.

  • L-Cpl Arthur Hawes, of 18 Dudley Street, Luton, has been wounded while serving with the machine gun section of the 1/5th Bedfords, and is in Tique Hospital in Malta.

  • Good news this morning of Pte William Lister, of 36 Shirley Road, Luton, to the relief of his mother who had heard nothing from him since September 10th. He had been incorrectly said to have been killed, but wrote that he had been left behind at Cairo after being taken ill. He expected to go into the firing line in a short time.

  • Writing from what he describes as "a second hell on earth," Sgt A. J. Day, C Company, 1/5th Bedfords, describes thrilling escapes he has had in Gallipoli. In one a bullet struck and broke the watch he had been given by the landlord of a billet at St Albans. "It saved me, so that was a slice of luck," he wrote.

  • Dick Jarvis, the old Luton Town goalkeeper serving with the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry, has been wounded in the right thigh. He was in the German lines but by a big effort he managed to crawl into a sniper's hole about 10 yards from the enemy. "I lay about ten hours till darkness, expecting a sniper to come at any minute, but at last managed to crawl to our lines," he wrote in a letter to Mr Will Pakes, trainer of the Clarence FC.

  • Luton Town FC entertained the Footballers' Battalion in a game that attracted about 2,000 spectators, with gate receipts of about £43. Wileman gave The Blues a 1-0 half-time lead. He doubled the advantage early in the second half and Butcher added a third before Goodwin and Poulton scored for the visitors, giving Luton a 3-2 win.