Stories from the Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph: June 3rd, 1916.

Yet another honour has been won for Luton by one of her sons. The most recent honour, the Military Medal, was won by Gunner Arthur William Custance, of 15 King's Road, and it is particularly pleasing from the fact he is still a boy.

Gunner Custance (picture right) enlisted at the age of 16 in the Royal Garrison Artillery, and was little more than a recruit when war broke out, but he went to the Front at the beginning and has celebrated two birthdays in France and is still only 18 years old. He had only once been home on leave and that was at Christmas.

After considerable service on the guns he was selected by the Colonel, who was apparently struck by the courage of the lad, to become a despatch rider, although he had no experience of motoring. He soon made good, however, and had already been recommended for gallantry prior to the latest recommendation which won the honour.

Following a letter to his mother Sarah saying he had been recommended for the honour and that he had recovered from another dose of gas, Gunner Custance wrote to say he had been awarded the Military Medal and he knew she would be very pleased to hear it.

[The award of the Military Medal to 40561 Gunner A. W. Custance, R.G.A., appeared in a supplement to The London Gazette in August 1916. From family history websites it seems that after surviving the war Arthur Custance moved to Birmingham, where he was married and finally died in hospital in 1964, aged 66.]

• Seventeen munition girls [from Vauxhall] were summoned to appear at a tribunal at Westminster on Thursday for absenting themselves without leave on Friday, 26th May, and again on Monday, 29th May. They were each fined one shilling after the tribunal decided that while there was no doubt they did stop out of work on the Friday, they were not guilty of doing so on the Monday because management decisions prevented them returning. Their manager was criticised for a lack of tact in handling their wages dispute. The girls were warned not to crow over a lenient fine for a serious offence and should settle disputes in the proper way in future. Neither side had secured a victory and both were to blame for what had happened.

• Luton is nothing if not progressive. This was further instances at a very representative meeting held on Thursday night under the auspices of the Advisory and Parliamentary Committee at Edwards' Restaurant, Manchester Street. Imbued with a keen and by no means unpatriotic desire that the owners of one-man businesses shall receive adequate treatment so far as military enlistment is concerned, this committee has now been converted into a national association, with Mr Alfred Yeo, MP for Poplar, as its head.

• A large congregation assembled at the Parish Church at midday yesterday to respect the revered memory of the late Lieut Reginald Cumberland Green, who was killed in action on May 18th. The service was conducted by the Rev A. E. Chapman and last half an hour. In the evening a muffled peal, consisting of 1,260 changes of Grandsire Triples, was rung in 47 minutes by members of the Parish Church Society of Ringers.

• Several letters received this week state that Pte George Hart, 24th County of London Regiment (The Queen's) is missing, and bleacher and dyer Mr Baxter Hart, of 'Homah,' New Bedford Road is naturally very concerned. However, he clings to the hope that his son may yet be alive, if only as a prisoner of war in Germany.

• An intimation was received by Mr and Mrs Webb, of 70 Princess Street, Luton, on Sunday that their son, Cpl Harry Webb (picture right), 24th Londons, was wounded in the knee by a piece of shrapnel and is in hospital at Rouen. Cpl Webb, who was captain of the Luton Casuals FC, wrote that he was hit the previous Tuesday when the battalion "went over the top" and he considered himself very lucky to be alive after the regiment had lost very heavily.

• Pte Fred Smith, of the Tanyard, Limbury, has been seriously wounded a second time while serving with the 4th Battalion of the Lincoln Regiment in France. He was the first lad to return to Luton after being first wounded. His wife has a brother (Pte Hyde) and two brothers-in-law with the Colours.

• Pte Percy Cook, who was wounded in a charge at Givenchy by the 24th Londons a year ago, is now back in Luton, discharged from the Army. He had received a letter from an old chum, Pte Percy Smith, who wrote that following a scrap with the Hun the regiment they were now a few miles back, taking a short rest. It was Pte Smith who had dragged Pte Cook to safety after the first charge.

• Major Orde attended at the Borough Police Court this morning and said that in the case of George Clifton, of 95 New Town Street, he wished to express an apology to everyone concerned. Clifton was due to report on May 31st and, as he did not do so, was reported as an absentee. On investigation it was found that the employer had been granted an extension to June 26th but that had not been entered in the proper book.

• Rifleman A. Ford, 'B' Company, 24th Rifle Brigade, wrote to a friend from Akbar Barracks, Agra, India, after a 29-day voyage from England. The Luton Corporation employee wrote that some very hot weather was being experienced in Agra - 118 degrees in the shade. He and his comrades would be happier if they get the old favourite 'cross keys' (clay pipes) but they could not be obtained there.

• After the somewhat gloomy reports of the past few months of the state of the straw trade in the St Albans and Luton district, one began to think that the season for 1916 was going to be a very unfavourable one. It is very pleasing to say that the worst prognostications have not been fulfilled for, though no one could think of asserting that anything like the usual volume of trade has been or is being done, yet it is the general experience that the depleted staffs are hardly capable of turning out the quantity of boaters required.

• Just after midnight this morning a very considerable fire broke out at Messrs T. Balmforth's engineering and steel works in Pondwicks Road. Judging by the amount of flames and smoke, firemen thought the whole works were ablaze, but on closer examination they discovered the the outbreak was more or less confined to the pattern stores, where apparently it had started. The pattern shop was completely demolished, the iron girders of its roof being twisted, and the roofing of the boiler makers' shop was also considerably damaged. The cause of the outbreak has not yet been discovered, but some valuable patterns in the pattern shop were burnt to a cinder.