Diary: Women on the land

Women on the land montage

Stories from The Luton News: Thursday, June 15th, 1916.

Great interest was centred last Thursday in a unique Bedfordshire event, namely a women's agricultural demonstration at Biddenham, near Bedford.

The women in the agricultural parts of Bedfordshire are, with their sisters all over the country, showing their patriotism by taking the place of men on the land. We all know of the drainage upon the labour of the farms to meet the Army requirements, but the women are grasping the opportunity of service to the country with fine zeal and enthusiasm, and this fact was strikingly demonstrated by last week's display.

It was a happy way of furthering the cause of "women on the land," doing credit to the County War Agricultural Committee, the Beds Agricultural Society, the Beds Chamber of Agriculture and the Beds Branch of the National Farmers' Union, under whose auspices it was held.

The County Council had on view an artificial milking learner which facilitates learners in the art, strengthens the wrists and prevents the learner causing damage to the cows.

The competitions were full of interest and the entrants were mostly young women. Some, in keeping with the modern idea, wore masculine garments, one 'plough woman' having overalls and a man's coat and leggings on. Khaki puttees, too, seemed favourite forms of dress for the legs.

  • Mr Holt, of 53 Adelaide Street, Luton, wisely decided to reassure friends through the medium of these columns that his son, Chief Engineer Artificer Frank Holt, had come through the Battle of Jutland all right. The young husband and father was residing in Devonport and served on HMS Warspite during the battle.

  • Seaman Thomas Fensome, son of Mr and Mrs George Fensome, of 93 Hitchin Road, has been home on leave for a few days, and he looks none the worse for his experience serving on HMS Warspite in the Battle of Jutland. Tom Fensome's place on the boat was in the magazine, 90 feet below, among the brave lads who fight without knowing what they fight or what their chances are.

  • To the names given in The Luton News on Thursday concerning the Luton lads lost in the great naval battle, more were added this weekend. They include Seaman Henry S. J. Hill, the 19-year-old son of Mr and Mrs Henry Hill, of 94 Cobden Street, and Leading Stoker Frederick Neville, aged 29, of 101 High Town Road.

  • A third member of the staff of The Luton News has gone to his long home. Range-finder L. S. Bennett was in our commercial department, and he was the first of our men to answer the call. He was drowned when HMS Hampshire was mined in a gale off Orkney while carrying Lord Kitchener on a diplomatic mission to Russia.

  • A letter writer signing himself "H. H." said it was little short of a calamity, certainly it was a disgrace, that the day set aside for memorial services to the late Lord Kitchener should have been allowed to pass in Luton without proper observance. With the exception of a few half-mast flags there was nothing to pay homage to a great soldier. "Can it be that our civic authorities are lacking in true patriotism?" asked the writer.

  • A number of Luton lads have been home from the war this week. Pte Albert Nelson, son of plumber and painter Mr J. Nelson, of 2 Crawley Road and a well known tennis player, came home last Thursday and returned to France on Tuesday after his brief visit.

  • Acting Corporal C. J. Bailey, son of tobacconist Mr G. Bailey, of New Bedford Road, is in Epsom Hospital with a piece of shell in his left side which X-rays had so far been unable to locate. He had been in France only nine weeks with the Rifle Brigade when he was bowled over by a trench bomb, and was sent back to England last Wednesday week.

  • A notice was posted in London yesterday stating that Classes 24 to 46 under the Military Service Acts will commence to be called up on June 24th. These are the married men who come under the Second Military Service Act, and with their calling up all the groups and classes will have been dealt with.

  • An unkempt-looking man named James Lavender, of Holly Street, Luton, appeared in the dock at Luton Borough Court yesterday charged with being a deserter since April 8th from the 4th Reserve Section A.V.C., stationed at Bulford Camp. Police who called at his house were told on several occasions by his wife that he was not there. Finally, an officer who became suspicious was talking to the wife at the back door when the prisoner darted out of the front and ran away. He was caught in civilian clothes in Ashton Road, having disguised himself very much so that he would not be recognised in the street. The prisoner was remanded for military escort and his wife warned about her conduct.

  • Housewives were facing the prospect of dearer milk. Cheshire farmers decided at a meeting on Tuesday not to make the usual reduction in milk prices to dealers in the summer and there was the prospect of further increases in the autumn, owing to the increasing cost of production and the high price of stock. Farmers had lost money last winter and felt justified in trying to get it back now.