From The Luton News, May 13th, 1915

Pte Charles Odell, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was one of 12 men from the county held prisoner of war at Camp No. 455, Salzwedel in Germany. He wrote to Mrs A. B. Attwood, of Highcroft, London Road, Luton, with an appeal for supplies of food and cigarettes.

Thanking Mrs Attwood for the kindness she had already shown to his mother and himself, Pte Odell wrote: "I must say the cigarettes were just what I was in need of most. There are 23 of us here, and I must say how we all like the smoke of an English cigarette."

Of the 12 Bedfordshire men in the camp, five had served with the Scots Guards, four with the King's Royal Rifles and three with the Bedfordshires.

Pte Odell, who was aged 21, lived at Langley Place, Luton. Before joining the army he worked for hat manufacturers Kershaw & Co. His mother was a widow with two young daughters at home.

• Billy Lawson, Luton Town Football Club's trainer, revealed where the players were now dispersed to. Mitchell was working at Kent's, Potts at the Diamond Foundry and Macfarlane was on Tyneside, all working on Government work; Robinson and Rollinson returned to their trade at Sheffield; Frith is said to have gone into the infirmary to have two toes amputated; R. Abbott, Chipperfield and Hoar are to resume work in Luton; Bob Hawkes and Fred Hawkes remain in the town; while Simms, Dunn, Wileman, Roberts, Roe, Lindley and Wilson are training with the Footballers' Battalion.

• Pte Joseph Crane, 2684, 24th County of London Regiment ("The Queen's") was convalescing at the home of his sister Mrs Poulton, of 27 Ashton Street, after being wounded at Neuve Chapelle on April 21st. He was the first of many Luton lads who enlisted in "The Queen's" in the early days of the war to return home. He was wounded by a sniper's bullet while repairing a sandbag parapet. The bullet went through his left arm, just missing the elbow bone, but nicking an artery that partially paralysed his hand and forearm. He had been in hospital in Boulogne and Newcastle and was now receiving attention at the Red Cross Hospital at Wardown with hopes of a complete recovery. Pte Crane is pictured right.

• Pte Albert Crawley, a prisoner of war at Uchte Moor, Germany, wrote to his brother Charles in Langley Road, Luton, saying he was in the best of health but asking for a handkerchief and food like butter, cheese and cake.

• Driver B. F. Coom, of 6 Wimbourne Road, Luton, was with the 173rd Company, Army Service Corps, at the front last Thursday when he received a telegram that his little boy, Bertie Thomas Jones Coom, aged two years, had died that day. He was granted leave, came home, and yesterday stood with his wife by the graveside of their little boy in the Church Cemetery.

• Special services were held in Luton churches on Sunday to remember those who perished with the sinking of the liner RMS Lusitania by a German submarine. St Mary's Parish Church, Christ Church, High Town Primitive Methodist Church, Chapel Street Wesleyan Church, Park Town Baptist Church and St Matthew's Church, where former Lutonian Mr Thomas Bodell lost on the liner was a former member of the congregation.

• The Omnia aircraft works at Leagrave were visited on Friday by Col Philpots, Commanding Royal Field Artillery stationed in Luton. He inspected the guard provided by the Leagrave Detachment, 2nd Supernumerary Coy, 5th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment.

• The people of Luton were greatly impressed by the fine appearance of their local Volunteer Corps (picture, right) on Sunday, when, in ideal weather, the unit marched to service at King Street Congregational Church. It was quite an imposing parade, and in their uniforms the men looked fit and well, and the manner in which they responded to the orders of the Commandant showed a military precision worthy of high commendation.

• Trams were involved in two collisions within ten minutes in Luton on Tuesday afternoon. A car driven by Mr William Austin's daughter was badly damaged when hit by a tram when she stopped under the Midland railway bridge to avoid a child. She was transporting three convalescent soldiers and a doctor from Wardown. The tram left the rails, unlike in the second collision in Dunstable Road in which a horse-drawn Army Service Corps wagon was involved. On the previous afternoon a car was badly damaged in a collision with a tram in Chapel Street. The driver was Mr H. W. Clarke, from Cowes, Isle of Wight.

• Following its takeover of the goodwill and general printing business of The Luton Times, the proprietors of The Luton News offered the newspaper and general printing plant and machinery previously owned by publishers E. J. Atkins and Son at 54 George Street, Luton, for sale by auction. Auctioneer Mr Robert H. Ruddock was to conduct the sale on May 18th at 1pm.