Digest of stories from The Luton News: Thursday, January 10th, 1918.

Luton took its proper part in the deeply earnest National Day of Intercession to the Almighty, and it was felt generally that there has never been a more impressive gathering of the kind in local history than that of Sunday afternoon.

Nearly all denominations met on one common platform, and the emotions of the large occasion at the Assembly Hall responded to the solemn note which was struck in the appeal to God. In addition the service was of a most representative civic character, the Mayor and Town Clerk being present in their insignia of office, accompanied by the aldermen and councillors, magistracy, borough officials, members of the Board of Guardians, Chamber of Commerce, representatives of various organisations, the Volunteer Corps, the Police, the Special Constabulary, the Fire Brigade, St John Ambulance Association and the Wardown Hospital staff.

The attendance was so large that many people unfortunately could not get in. Arrangements, however, were quickly made for an overflow meeting at the Waller Street Chapel, several of the ministers leaving the larger gathering to assist at the other.

Mr Fred Gostelow, the senior Luton organist, was appropriately chosen to take charge of the musical portions of the service, which were confined solely to hearty congregational singing.

After reading the King's proclamation setting aside the day as one of prayer and thanksgiving in all the churches of the dominion, Canon C. Morgan Smith (presiding) said the British people dare not face the anxieties of the New Year without fresh assurance of Divine assistance.

• A nasty accident occurred at Messrs George Kent's works, Biscot Road, Luton, on Saturday. Miss Ada Dennison, 20, of 6 Ash Road, Luton, who is employed in an automatic shop, was cleaning a machine when her right hand caught in the cogs. After the works nurse dressed the injuries, Dr Lloyd ordered her removal to the Bute Hospital. Four fingers of her right hand are injured, but the girl herself says she fears she has lost two of them, so serious are the injuries. Miss Dennison has worked for the firm exactly three years.

• Mr Charles Bosworth, licensee of the Bridge Hotel, Bute Street, is the author of an invention which should be a boon to disabled soldiers. He has invented an improved apparatus for men in billiard playing to assist one-armed players in controlling the cue and enabling them to play with greater ease and accuracy. It is a form of cue rest adapted to be carried on the cue for use on the cloth, and a further adjustable rest when the ball lies close to the cushion. It allows a player to effect any strokes with one hand.

• Rifleman Horace Bell (Royal Irish Rifles), of 47 Baker Street, Luton, has been invalided to England, having been gasses and suffering from trench fever and shell shock. He had been repeatedly in action, and came through the battle of Cambrai, afterwards being taken ill. He is now in a Hampstead Heath hospital, and is slowly but surely progressing. Horace Bell formerly worked for hat manufacturer Mr Skinner, of Park Street.

• The War Office has notified that Capt Robert Bell, R.A.M.C., is suffering from gas shell wounds. We understand he was gassed on the early morning on December 24th while attending to the wounded during a serious gas bombardment on the Western Front. He is making a satisfactory recovery.

• Capt Francis Bromley Hobbs (pictured below, left), son of Mrs Hobbs, of 'Fleetville,' Conway Road, Luton, has been awarded the Military Cross for gallantry while serving with the Beds Regiment. Capt Hobbs is barely out of his teens, but he has been all through the Palestine campaign, being wounded last autumn.

• Another Lutonian to receive the Military Cross for bravery in the field is Pte Walter Warren (pictured above, right), youngest son of Mr and Mrs Warren, of 34 Baker Street, Luton. His wife lives at 19 Brook Street. Pte Warren won his honour during a gas attack, doing noble work to rescue half of the men in his company, at great personal danger. He enlisted in the R.A.M.C. in May 1915 and was transferred to Ireland in November 1916, being drafted out to France in January 1917. Before the war he was a member of the Luton Parish Church choir for over 10 years and carried on business as a builder.

• The Luton friends of Pte H. Hewson, R.A.M.C. (pictured, right), will learn with pleasure of a brave act which has gained him the Military Medal. Writing to his mother he says he brought in a wounded officer - Major Johnson VC - after two attempts under heavy shell fire. Before joining up Pte Hewson was with hat manufacturers A. & F. Higgins, of Bute Street. He is the son of late Lancashire farmer Mr Hewson, and of Mrs Hewson, of 17 Lyndhurst Road, Luton. He has been in France for nearly two years.

• Mrs Wilson, of 30 Queen Street, Luton, has received news of the death of her son, Sgt Arthur Percy Wilson, aged 29, who was in the Bedfordshire Regiment. A letter from Capt J. Coe said Sgt Wilson was killed on the night of December 8th whilst out wiring.

• Mrs Titmus, of Sundon, has been informed in a letter of the death in action of her husband, Pte Harry Titmus, on December 9th. He was buried where he fell, and left a widow and eight children.

• On January 4th, Mrs Adelaide Marshall, of 23 Vernon Road, Luton, heard from the War Office that her husband, Pte Arthur Stanley Marshall, of the 7th East Surrey Regiment (23516), was missing after the Cambrai battle on November 30th. She next received a card from him, dated December 9th, on which he said he was a prisoner in Germany but was well. He had served for 14 months, having previously been employed by hat manufacturers Messrs Sanders and Brightman for three years. [Arthur Marshall had married Adelaide in Luton in 1914. He died in Luton in 1969 at the age of 80.

• After being missing since November 30th, it is now known that Pte Charles James Harris, husband of Mrs Sophia Harris, of 44 Grange [now St Peter's] Road, Luton, is in the hands of the Germans. Mrs Harris had heard nothing of him since his capture until on Saturday morning she received a card from him saying that he was in Germany. Pte Harris is an old Waller Street schoolboy, being born in Luton. He worked for Messrs G. Kent Ltd until joining up in July 1916, and served in France with a trench mortar battery in the Middlesex Regiment until captured. [Born in 1886 in Luton, Charles married Sophia Alice Brightman at Christ Church, Luton, on May 12th, 1913, and they had two daughters. He died in Luton on February 13th, 1939, aged 52.]

• Pte George Shackleton (41891, 13th Essex Regiment) has written to his father at 8 Stanley Street, Luton, from Dulmen, Germany, to say that he was not wounded at Cambrai on November 30th, as officially reported, but was taken prisoner. [London-born George Shackleton died from an illness on March 16th, 1918, while still held prisoner. He is commemorated on the Luton Roll of Honour.]