Stories from the Beds & Herts Telegraph: July 24th, 1915.

We are glad to hear from the Mayor this morning that the 1/5th Beds are assured of getting the 1,000 mosquito nets which were mentioned at Thursday's Recruiting Committee meeting as being required by them.

Our Territorial boys are expecting to go on foreign service shortly, and we learn that the ladies of the mayoress's working party have undertaken to provide the mosquito nets - one for every man in the battalion - within the next few days. We cannot speak too highly of the enthusiasm and sacrifice of the ladies of the Town Working Party in this, as also in other matters.

It is no small order not only to find the material but make up as many as 1,000 mosquito nets in a few days, but that it will be done is assured by the fact that these ladies have set their hands to the task. The cost, it is expected, will be between £30 and £40.

• Mr Arthur Brown, who with Mr C. R. Clay and Mr Robert Plummer, is doing Red Cross work in France, finds the opportunity from time to time to send the Mayor of Luton a picture postcard or two, and we hear he says that, although the work is exacting, it is very interesting. Mr Brown has already covered between 5,000 and 6,000 miles with his car in France.

• Mr W. H. Coate, eldest son of the Vicar of St Matthew's, Luton (the Rev H. Coate) is serving at the Dardanelles as first lieutenant in the Munster Fusiliers. The vicar's second son, Mr Talbot Coate, has just been gazetted second lieutenant in the 5th Bedfordshires.

• Pte George E. Young, son of Mrs Young, of 4 Russell Rise, Luton, is now back in the firing line after being wounded by a bullet that passed through his tunic and braces and injured his back during the famous charge by the 24th Londons in May. Prior to the war he was a member of the clerical staff of Commercial Cars.

• Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst addressed a crowded Town Hall at Bedford on Tuesday when she said it was the first meeting since the war began at which a speaker could appeal equally to men and women for war service. Women were an enormous reserve force who could release men for fighting if women were trained to do other work, she said. Any men who were doing any work which could be done by women were guilty without knowing it of a crime against their country. Mrs Pankhurst spoke in favour of some system of national service.

• At a dinner given for the management of Commercial Cars Ltd at the George Hotel, Luton, it was revealed that Mr Thomas, their chief engineer, had just returned from a visit to the various depots in France and reported that Commer Cars were doing extremely well and a great number of them were right at the front and hundreds of them in all parts of France helping the country. Unsolicited letters from drivers included comments such as "I could not get a more reliable friend" and "nearly all of the cars in the convoy are Commer Cars and they want some beating for consistent running".

• Among the 2/5th Lincolns now under canvas at Stockwood Park is Pte Manville Williams, 3744, a music hall artiste by profession who has frequently figured on the platform at YMCA concerts and entertainments in Luton and district. He is very popular among his comrades as a comedian, contortionist, ventriloquist, magician and instrumentalist. Prior to the war he had played at most of the leading provincial halls and travelled practically throughout the British Isles.

• Since last Wednesday the following men have enlisted at the Corn Exchange in the New Army: O. Tompkins, F. Jacks, A. Bowen, A. Catlin, T. Evans, W. Minney, A. Brown., S. Manton, S. Cox, S. Scales, H. Glenister, W. Manning, J. S. A. Hobbs and H. Dennett (al Luton). The following have enlisted in the Beds Territorials: Alfred George Brown, Frederick Franlin, Frederick Winch, H. J. Ashworth, W. G. Kirby, E. E. Kempson, W. Hollis, W. Reeves, Arthur Coote (Luton) and H. R. Dyer (Leagrave).

• Wellington Street Baptists took a new lease of life with the arrival of the Rev C. Evelyn-Charlesworth, and it is no exaggeration to say that the members are now working with greater hope and energy than for many years. It is readily agreed that the new pastor is a very real quickening spirit, and his interest in all departments of the church takes a practical form. With the co-operation of the members he has set out to reduce the Sunday School debt of £1,600 in connection with the new school premises to a level of £1,000 in the first year of his pastorate. Already they have raised practically £300 by three efforts, including sitting in his vestry all day on Wednesday to receive gifts totalling approximately £130.

• While cycling behind a horse and cart up Hitchin Road, Luton, on Thursday, a lad named Fred Rae, of 51 Duke Street, was pitched again the motor van of Mr Fensome, dairyman, of Adelaide Street, near the Midland railway bridge. The bicycle was smashed as the van wheels passed over it, but the lad escaped unhurt.

• An alarming incident occurred at Queensbury, the residence of Mr M. Plummer in Crescent Road, Luton, on Wednesday night. Chauffeur William Gomm was beneath the motor car in the garage when the electric light wire suddenly fused, causing a bowl of petrol to catch fire. Pluckily, he ran out of the building with it but sustained rather bad burns to the hands and arms that needed medical attention. A fire within the garage was extinguished using a garden hose.