Diary: Red Cross take over at Wardown

 

Stories from the Beds & Herts Telegraph: November 13th, 1915.

VAD nurses inspection, July 1914

The interesting announcement has been published for the first time that Wardown Mansion will in future be used as a Voluntary Aid Detachment hospital for the reception of wounded troops, the cases being drafted there from Aylesbury Hospital.

The official transfer of the hospital from the military authorities, under whose auspices it has been previously worked, to the V.A.D. committee took place on Monday. The voluntary staff will be supplemented by a matron-in-charge and two highly trained nurses from London.

Mr Anthony Cumberland made an appeal on Monday to the master butchers of the town on the matter of a meat supply for the hospital, and it was agreed that the hospital should be supplied at the lowest market prices during the coming winter months.

[Pictured are V.A.D. nurses during an inspection at The Larches, the New Bedford Road home of Commandant Mrs Mary Green, in July 1914.]

  • Pte J. W. Lemmon, 5067, 1/5th Beds Regiment, wounded in hospital at Taplow, Bucks, wrote that Sir William Horsler, the King's doctor, had described him as the most remarkable case in the hospital. A bullet had entered his body at the left side of the neck, fractured the first rib, flattened the left lung, and fluid and blood had forced his heart over to his right side. Doctors put a tube in his back to withdraw the blood and his heart had returned to its proper place. "I had nine doctors round me and they said I ought to be thankful I was alive. They saved my life here, and I hope soon to leave."

  • Ten more lighting cases were heard at Luton Borough Sessions this morning, bringing the total number of cases since the Order has been in force up to 40. Among them was Hermann Homann, of 34 Havelock Road, who said he was a non-naturalised German factory owner. He said the offence was an oversight on the part of his employees in pulling down the blinds. He was fined the highest sum to date, 50 shillings, and cautioned that having regard to his nationality he ought to be more careful.

  • Today Luton ladies are selling flags, badges and rosettes to raise funds for the care of horses wounded in the war. The moving force is the RSPCA, which works in conjunction with the Army Veterinary Corps. Within the past year the country had subscribed £43,000 to the cause, of which £6,000 had been raised in Bedfordshire. Another £30,000 was needed urgently so that hospitals for wounded horses could be provided in the Balkans.

  • Pte B. Gore, 10306, 1st Essex Regiment, is now in A Ward, King George Hospital, London, having been wounded for a second time. Pte Gore, whose home is at 32 St Ann's Road, Luton, was wounded in the left shoulder on the retreat from Mons a year earlier, and then landed in the Dardanelles, where he fought until August 12th when he got an explosive bullet through his left shoulder bone. He was now awaiting an operation to have a piece of loose bone removed from his shoulder, and hoped to be home in a few weeks.

  • Upwards of 100 of the employees of the Vauxhall Motors Ltd are fighting for King and country ion France or the Near East. Factory employees decided that their men, who are scattered among various regiments, should not be left out in the cold this Christmas, and on Friday started a subscription for the purpose of sending the men at the Front such little comforts as might be acceptable. Within 24 hours the sum of £54 7s 10½d had been raised towards the purchase of goods, and very soon the boxes were being made and packed. Each one contains a writing pad, envelopes, a pencil, cafe au lait, health salts, insect powder, chewing gum, candles, soap, Oxo cubes, lime juice and soda crystals, a dozen boxes of matches, two sorts of tobacco, two cigars, gold flake and woodbine cigarettes and two sorts of sweets - ready for despatch next week.

  • A pleasant social function took place on Wednesday afternoon, when a representative gathering met at the Wesley Hall for a Doll Exhibition and Sale of Work being held by the Waller Street branch of the Young Leaguers Union, in aid of the Harpenden Sanitorium for Children connected with the National Children's Home and Orphanage. There are at present 63 children at the Harpenden Home, and the Waller Street Young Leaguers have raised the sum of £225 since they began the work for the good cause. The exhibition was opened by the Mayoress, Mrs J. H. Staddon.

  • News is to hand of the death of L-Cpl Arthur Thomas Highton, only son of Mr and Mrs Highton, of Havelock Road, Luton. which took place on November 10th at the University War Hospital, Southampton, The 18-year-old had been sent to hospital at Alexandria with dysentery and transferred to the one at Southampton.

  • The funeral of Pte Charles Thomson Barnard, of London Road, Luton, took place at the General Cemetery on Thursday. He had joined the 24th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment, and was taken ill with appendicitis while coming home on leave. He died at the Bute Hospital on Sunday, the day following his 19th birthday.

  • There was a drenching storm overnight but the excellence of the turf and a strong drying wind resulted in playing conditions at the Luton Town ground today being better than expected for the friendly against Kettering, which the home side won 4-0. Lovell gave the Blues a 1-0 lead five minutes before the interval. Bob Hawkes, Moore and Wilson completed the scoring in the second half.

  • At a meeting of the football clubs of the London Combination last night it was decided to increase the number of clubs. Luton Town and Reading are the clubs proposed to be included in the programme for the New Year. There is no doubt that the games will be more attractive than under the old friendly arrangements, for the competitive nature will add spice and zest to the game.