Diary: Saved from mined hospital ship

 

Stories from the Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph: December 4th, 1915.

Photo: "HS Anglia" by Imperial War Museum, Q22775

Former Luton newsagent Pte T. Edwards, 2nd East Surrey Regiment, who was a patient on board the ill-fated hospital ship HMHS Anglia which sank after striking a mine placed by a German submarine off Folkestone on November 17th, 1915, wrote of his experiences from a hospital in Leicester.

Pte Edwards had been wounded in France and was being brought back to England from Calais. In a letter to Mr James Haylock, of Barbers Lane, Luton, he wrote: I am not very well but much better than I have been. I was on board the ill-fated hospital ship Anglia when she went down, and I just escaped being drowned.

"It was a terrible experience. I was in the water about a quarter of an hour, and was picked up by a torpedo boat [HMS Hazard]. The sailors behaved splendidly towards us, sharing their clothes and food with us, and doing their best to cheer us up.

"There was no panic on board, but the cries of the bed patients below were terrible. Those within reach were saved. The matron was very brave indeed, trying to calm those who could not swim, and she refused to leave the ship until almost the last. Many of the patients jumped overboard and were drowned."

Before the war Pte Edwards had kept a newsagent's shop in Hastings Street, and afterwards at 27 Norman Road, where his mother still lived.

  • Cpl F. Gregory, 1st Eastern Mounted Brigade Field Ambulance, R.A.M.C., who has been doing duty in Gallipoli with the Norfolk Yeomanry, has undergone an operation at Cairo for apprendicitis. He is a son of Mr Harry Gregory, of Leagrave.

  • The Rev S. J. Cullings, the Wesleyan Chaplain of the 1/5th Bedfordshire Regiment, who recently returned from the Dardanelles suffering from dysentery, has died at one of the Birmingham Military Hospitals. He leaves a young widow and three children.

  • Pc Hencher, of the Luton Borough Police Force, has just been awarded the Merit Badge, which carried with it 1d a day extra pay. The badge has been awarded for meritorious conduct in connection with the arrest of a burglar in the Tennyson Road district. There had been numerous complaints of housebreaking and burglary from that district, and one night Pc Hencher caught a man coming out of a passage with stolen property in his possession.. The man was convicted at the Assizes and given a considerable sentence. Pc Hencher has been a member of the Borough Force since 1902.

  • Thursday was Linen Day at the Bute Hospital, and some very useful gifts were received, including sheets, pillow cases, blankets and towels.

  • Another flag day for Luton is being organised. This time it is to be in support of a fund to provide a holiday home for soldiers who come home partly disabled, and whil still able to make some sort of a living, are not able to earn enough for a summer holiday. The suggested date is January 15th.

  • A runaway horse caused an alarming scene in High Town Road yesterday afternoon, resulting in the shop front of Messrs R. P. Chantler Ltd being smashed. The horse, which was attached to a coal trolley, was temporarily left unattended and was startled by a passing tram. As it bolted down High Town Road, the horse had collided with a pony and trap owned by Mr Percy Kime, of Stopsley Post Office, and the trap was smashed as it crashed into the shop. The runaway slipped an fell outside the Bricklayers' Arms, where it was restrained.

  • Today (Saturday) a more alarming incident involving a horse and cart occurred outside the Luton Court House in Stuart Street. The horse had suddenly started to kick and plunge, went on to the pavement and came down on the spikes of iron railings outside the court house. The animal was freed with difficulty and taken to a local veterinary surgeon, but we understand there is little chance of the horse surviving its injuries. The driver was not hurt as he was not on the cart, but the load of bricks which fell from it are still outside the c ourt house.

  • Playing football behind the lines in France, the 6th Bedfords beat the 50th Field Ambulance 5-1.

  • At Luton, the Town FC entertained the 59th (North Midland) Army Service Corps on a water-logged pitch and in a match that was played only at the insistence of the players. Fewer than 50 spectators braved the weather to see the Town run out easy winners, by eight goal to nil.