Mrs J. W. Green, Commandant of the local aid detachment of the British Red Cross, has received the following letter from Col Astley Clarke, Assistant Director Medical Service, 2/1st North Midland Division:

The members of the East Anglian Royal Engineers, who sailed for the Dardanelles with the Division to which the 1/5th Bedfordshires are also attached, were not engaged in the severe fighting which fell to the lot of the infantry after landing, but since they landed on the Peninsular they have repeatedly been under shell fire, and one Lutonian has already been killed.

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

It is quite evident that our appeal in last Saturday's Telegraph to the directors of Luton Town FC to gird up their loins and make an effort to cater in a manner befitting the old club for the loyal fellows who are serving the country in factories of the town was not unheeded.

Letters were received at the their homes in Luton from men in hospital in Alexandria and Malta, some as a result of wounds sustained at Gallipoli and others for illnesses.

Glowing tributes are paid to the fighting qualities of both officers and men by Lieut-Col Edgar Brighten, the Commanding Officer the 1/5th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, in a letter written to his wife while the regiment were in the middle of the fight which started at one o'clock on Sunday, August 15th.

Stories from The Luton News: Thursday, September 2nd, 1915.

While casualties among the 1/5th Bedfords were taking the headlines, Lutonians with other regiments were also being killed or wounded. Among them was Saddler Albert Walter Bunker (pictured), affectionately known as 'Nibbo' and the son of Mr Albert Bunker, the well-known harness maker of 4 Bridge Street, Luton.

Two former members of the staff of the Luton News/Saturday Telegraph gave accounts of their experiences of Gallipoli. Pte Claud Gilder, 4049, of 35 Moor Street, Luton, was so far unscathed bar a scratch, while Pte H. Adams was wounded in the leg and in hospital in Malta.

Strong exception was taken at a meeting of the Luton Board of Guardians on Monday [August 23rd, 1915] to a policy of dealing with the English-born wives of interned aliens on the same level as pauper cases.

Boards of Guardians are given discretionary powers to deal with applications for assistance in these cases up to a maximum of nine shillings per week for a wife and 1s 6d per week for each child, the money paid out in this direction being refunded from Government sources.

[Luton Fire Brigade 1917]

[King George V at Vimy Ridge with the Vauxhall D-type staff car that got him there. Photo courtesy of Vauxhall.]

Stories from the Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph: August 28th, 1915.

"The toll of the brave: more local officers fall". Gallipoli was not unnaturally stealing the headlines after the 1/5th Bedfords had gone into action there just over two weeks previously.

We have received a very interesting group photograph composed for the most part of Luton lads who joined the 24th London when it was stationed at St Albans. In sending the photograph our correspondent says:

Two sons lost on one battlefield on one day. A tragic enough story - but it meant mum Ellen had lost a total of three of her four sons in the Great War in just eight months.

Stories from The Luton News: Thursday, August 26th, 1915.

After news of an early wounded casualty suffered by the 1/5th Bedfords at Gallipoli appeared in the Saturday Telegraph at the weekend, The Luton News carried details of the first two Luton men known to have been killed in action - Capt Brian Clarke Cumberland and Pte Cyril Bert Barton.