Stories from the Luton News: Thursday, November 11th, 1915.

Alderman John Henry Staddon, of 'Withycombe.' Studley Road, Luton, and a member of the Corporation for 15 years, was unanimously elected Mayor of Luton for 1915-16, succeeding Councillor Walter James Primett, who had held office for two terms and became the new Deputy Mayor.

Alderman Staddon, who took as his motto "Nothing matters save the war; nothing counts save the winning of it," was a director of hat manufacturers Vyse, Sons & Co. He was a past president of Luton Chamber of Commerce and remained chairman of the Chamber's Straw Hat Section.

The outgoing Mayor was presented with a framed copy of the resolution of thanks for his past services and also with a silver coffee set subscribed for by council members and officials.

[New Mayor Alderman Staddon is pictured left, outgoing Mayor Councillor Primett right (above)]

• A further 24 cases of contraventions of the Lighting Order authorised under the Defence of the Realm Act were heard by Borough Magistrates yesterday. Fines ranging from five shillings to 20s were imposed, many for curtains and blinds not being drawn properly. Among those fined were Thomas Maw, librarian at the Public Library, the manager of the Co-operative Society's High Town branch, and a clergyman who said he was "guilty in a microscopical degree" when light leaked from the study of his home.

• A 50-year-old cleaner at the town's Post Office was committed from Luton Borough Court for trial at Bedfordshire Assizes on a charge that he stole a postal package. A member of the GPO Investigation Department put a test package in the letter box at the end of the counter at the Cheapside Post Office. The package and 11 other envelopes were later found in the cleaner's possession, it was alleged. The prisoner was bailed in the sum of £25, with two sureties of £25 each that were immediately forthcoming.

• Mr T. H. Few, the stationmaster at Luton GNR, wrote that he had been notified that his Booking Clerk, Coy Sgt-Major Herbert William Sexton, 935, 1/2nd Field Company, E.A.R.E., died of enteric fever on October 30th, while serving in the Mediterranean Expedition. He was aged 21 and his parents lived in Kensworth.

• Pte Charles Thomson Barnard, son of Mr Charles Barnard of the firm of Messrs Barnard and Dawson, died on Sunday evening last, the day following his 19th birthday. He was in the 24th Middlesex Regt, which he joined five weeks ago, and was suddenly taken ill on the way home, which he just managed to reach. He was taken to the Bute Hospital diagnosed with acute appendicitis and died the same night.

• Mr and Mrs G. Worker, of 87 Warwick Road, Luton, have received three letters relating to how their son, Sapper Richard Worker, 807, 1/2 Field Company, E.A.R.E., met his death in Gallipoli. He was killed by a shell on September 21st, according to his commanding officer.

• Sgt R. E. Bass, of Collingdon Street, son of Mr and Mrs Bass, of Alma Street, informed his friends that he had been granted a commission and was now a Second Lieutenant in the 1/5th Bedfords Machine Gun Section serving in Gallipoli. In August he proceeded to Gallipoli with the 1/5th Bedfords and has so far escaped wounds, although like many other of his comrades he has had dysentery. He had been a member of Luton Rifle Club for some time.

• Mr and Mrs Gilder, of 35 Moor Street, Luton, received a letter from their son, Pte Claude Gilder, of the 1/5th Bedfords, stating that he had been transferred from hospital to hospital ship and had arrived at a clearing hospital at Eastleigh, Hampshire.

• Pte A. Halfpenny, of 29 York Street, Luton, who had been wounded in early fighting at Gallipoli, wrote to his mother to say he was now "in the pink" and ready to return to the Front. His brother, Pte Charles Halfpenny, who was wounded at the same time, is still in hospital at Tring.

• The management and employees of the Vauxhall Motors Ltd made a special effort last weekend on behalf of the firm's employees who are serving in the firing line. As a result a sum of £34 7s 10½d was subscribed within 24 hours. and yesterday the first consignment of 45 boxes of comforts were despatched to Lieut-Col E. W. Brighten at the Dardanelles, for their men serving in the 1/5th Bedfords and the E.A.R.E. at Gallipoli. A consignment for the old Vauxhall men in France will be sent next week.

• Miss Gertrude Bacon, the well-known aeronaut and authoress, and the first English lady to go up in a flying machine, strongly advocated lighting restrictions as a protection against air risks at a lecture she gave to the Chapel Street Wesley Guild on Monday evening. She showed some photographs of London taken at night by the aid of ordinary street lamps, and it was surprising how easily places could be distinguished in these photographs. Lighting restrictions were essential and successful, and people were foolish to grumble at the small inconvenience they were put to.

• A verdict of suicide whilst temporarily insane was returned by a jury at an inquest on Monday on John McCall Sears, aged 41, a straw hat machinist employed at Dillingham's, who jumped in front in front of a London-bound express as it was slowing down at Luton Midland railway station. He had told his sister Mrs Annie Boston, with whom he was spending a few nights at 42 Princess Street, Luton, that he "had got to walk to Hell to meet the devil". The inquest heard gruesome details about the body after it had been run over by the train, which at the time was slowing down and travelling at about 10 mph.

• Mr John Warden Henderson, who was one of the first batch of Diamond foundrymen to come down to Luton from Falkirk nine years or so ago, died suddenly at home on Monday morning. He expired after a violent fit of coughing on Monday morning, during which he fell out of bed. He was unconscious when a neighbour tried to revive him, and a doctor pronounced life extinct.

• Under the new regulations the stall-holders in the market had to provide their own lighting arrangements on Saturday evening. One of them had an oil lamp just under the cover of his stall, and just before nine o'clock the canvas caught fire. The brigade were called, but men in the market pulled off the covers of neighbouring stalls and then pulled off the burning cover and stamped out the fire.

• 'Hiawatha's Wedding Feast,' Coleridge Taylor's Cantata for Tenor Solo, Chorus and Orchestra, will be performed by Mr Arthur F. Drew (tenor), the Luton Co-operative Senior Choir and the Luton Orchestral Society in the Winter Assembly Hall on Wednesday, November 17th. The whole of the profits will be given to the 1/5th Beds Territorials' Comforts Fund.

• A Chaplin contest was held at the Grand Theatre on Friday evening in connection with the visit last week of 'Venus Ltd' and the introduction of a Charlie Chaplin character into the revue. There was a prize of £1 in each of three classes, which attracted a considerable number of competitors.

• The death had occurred after a short illness at Hastings of Mr Frederick J. Hucklesby, younger brother of the late Mr Asher J. Hucklesby [a former Mayor who had enabled Luton to acquired Wardown Park]. Frederick Huckleby had been associated with his brother's hat firm (Messrs A. Hucklesby and Co) and later the plait business of Mr J. J. Linsell, also in George Street. He subsequently became a plait merchant in his own account at the George Street premises later occupied by the Franklin Hotel, before giving up the straw trade and moving to London to build up a land and estate agency. Twice married, he left a widow, five daughters and three sons.

• Three boys aged 15 and one aged 16 appeared at Luton Divisional Court on Monday for gaming with coins in Turner's Knoll, Stopsley, on Sunday, October 24th. They all pleaded guilty, two being fined 10 shillings and the others 5s.

• The thousands of people who daily use the New Bedford Road both into and out of the town will welcome the installation of a clock by Mr Harry Inward over his premises at the bottom of Collingdon Street and Inkerman Street.