From the Beds & Herts Telegraph, May 1, 1915.

Promiscuity and war babies was a scandal threatening to engulf Luton - and the finger was being pointed from Birmingham.

There are strong grounds for believing that statements have been made, and rumours of the most virulent and vilifying character circulated, reflecting in most unjust degree upon the young womanhood of Luton equally with the men who have placed their lives at the service of the country and who have been stationed in the borough from time to time, reported the Telegraph.

While Mayor Councillor Walter Primett declined to give results of an investigation before next Tuesday's meeting of the Town Council, the Telegraph said details it possessed from parties most reliably informed suggested the statements were a gross exaggeration of the facts.

Already an MP had made a statement that in one county where large numbers of troops had been stationed some 2,000 war babies were expected. In some minds, said the Telegraph, Bedfordshire was at once singled out as the county concerned, and it followed that Luton should be promptly stigmatised as the principal locality.

As a result an inspector of the Local Government Board had been to Luton to make an inquiry, and the Mayor would make a statement on the results of this at the Town Council meeting.

• Nathaniel John Fowler, aged 31, serving with the Royal Engineers died in hospital on Sunday from severe wounds to the abdomen sustained in action the previous Friday. The Harpenden-born sapper lived in Leagrave and left a widow and two children.

• Messrs Arthur Brown, C. R. Clay and Rupert Plummer, who left Luton last week for Red Cross work in France, are now in the heart of the struggle. They are working voluntarily right up to the big guns and only about two miles from the trenches. They say there is an enormous amount of work both for themselves and the cars they took over with them.

• In an air raid on Bury St Edmunds early on Friday morning, bombs were dropped on the quarter of the town where the 5th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment was located until about three weeks ago.

• Field Marshall Sir John French told the 2nd Bedfordshire after the battle of Neuve Chapelle "No regiment pushed forward more gallantly". His words were to be used on a new recruiting poster for the Bedfordshire Regiment.

• Latest recruits to the Regular Army who enlisted at the Corn Exchange were: A. E. Allbone, E. Armitage, A. H. Bird, C. Butterfield, A. Chamberlain, T. Day, E. Franklin, W. Gurney, A. J. Ling, W. Northwood, A. Parkins, W. E. Pigott, R. Runball, J. Sleator, F. T. Sinfield, I. White, J. Wilson. Recruits to the 2/5th Bedfords: A. Chapman, R. Head, F. Tompkins (Luton), L. Carrington (Barton), E. Pollard, H. Wilson (Harpenden).

• Parents of a soldier reported to have died from pneumonia at Harpenden arrived by train to discover that the body they were there to identify was not their son. Inquiries revealed there were two men with identical names and they met their son, who was looking remarkably fit and well. It was to be a bitter blow for the real parents of the dead man, who were unaware their son was even ill.

• Harpenden had had a surfeit of tragedies since it became a billeting area, said the Telegraph. In less than six months there had been three suicides and an unsolved fatality among soldiers.

• A Buckinghamshire man was fined £4 by magistrates for refusing to billet two soldiers of the 5th Somerset Light Infantry in the six-roomed house he shared with his wife. The case was the first of its kind in the Southern Command area.

• The Bishop of Southwell, Dr Hoskyns, paid a short visit to the Plait Hall YMCA Centre last night to inspect the splendid recreation facilities available to men of the Notts and Derby battalions. The Bishop's diocese covered the area from which the men came and he had made a point of taking an interest in their welfare.

• Luton Chamber of Commerce concluded that there were only very small grounds for complaints respecting the expeditious production and delivery of munitions from town factories. A meeting at the Town Hall on Thursday, attended by representatives of firms engaged directly or indirectly in the production of munitions of war and other Government contracts, expressed satisfaction with the situation in Luton, following concerns expressed about other centres nationally.

• A pianoforte recital was given in the Council Chamber at the Town Hall by Mr Percy Sherwood, who for some years had been one of the professors of music at Dresden in Germany. He was on holiday in England at the outbreak of war and had remained in London as it was impossible for him to return to Germany. His house, manuscripts and property there had been confiscated by the Germans, who had also made his brother a prisoner of war.

• A further case of diphtheria was reported near the pond in Stopsley. The case had been moved to the isolation hospital. Mr Hucklesby told a meeting of Stopsley Parish Council that the greatest trouble arose not from their own country folk but fro the unclean people who collected from various parishes into the very small properties.

• A mail cart was badly smashed in a collision with a motor car on the Luton to Dunstable road at about 11.30 pm on Saturday. Mail cart driver Mr Buckingham, employed by Messrs Powdrill and Sons, was thrown out and suffered a hip injury. The three occupants of the car driven by Mr R. Burley escaped injury.

• Two Luton police constables were pensioned off by the Borough force last night having completed 25 years of meritorious service each. Chief Constable Teale presented Pc Moss Sharp (joined 1889) and PC Charles Bransom (1890) with inscribed marble timepieces from the rank and file of the force, plus gold brooches for their wives.

• With their league season completed, Luton Town FC played one last match of the season, against a team from the 2/1 Notts and Derby Brigade. A goal from Rollinson and a hat-trick from Simms made the final score 4-0 in one of the friendliest of friendlies.