Stories from the Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph: June 10th, 1916.

Further news has reached Luton of the loss of gallant sons in the recent naval battle [of Jutland] and the loss of HMS Hampshire since publication of the Luton News on Thursday.

Leading Stoker Frederick Neville, a native of Luton and old boy of Dunstable Road School, went down with HMS Queen Mary in the historic battle. He was 23 years of age and his wife and two-year-old son reside with his sister at 101 Highbury Road. The intimation that he was among the missing reached his anxious wife on Wednesday.

Yet another whom it is feared has found a watery grave is Seaman Henry Hill, son of Mr and Mrs Henry Hill, of 94 Cobden Street. He was on HMS Turbulent, which was in the thick of the battle from the first, and which went down comparatively early on. [It seems he was in fact taken prisoner by the Germans and survived the war].

It is with regret that we announce the loss of another of our staff, Lester Stone Bennett, who was serving as range-finding operator on the Hampshire, the ill-fated vessel which went down with Lord Kitchener this week. He arrived from Tunbridge Wells at the beginning of 1914 to deal more particularly with orders on the general printing side of the Luton News business. He was the first member of staff to be called up, as a Naval Reservist in August 1914, and the third to die in the war.

The Telegraph reported that Lord Kitchener himself had been seen to leave the Hampshire and get clear of the wreck, but the boat in which he was placed was swamped by stormy seas.

• On land, two further Lutonians were reported seriously wounded. Mr and Mrs Pyne, of 39 Beech Road, received official information that their eldest son, Rifleman Joseph Pyne, of the King's Royal Rifles, was wounded in the shoulder and right eye by shrapnel and was in hospital in Boulogne. Meanwhile, Mrs Kempson, of 47 Cambridge Street, learned that son Rifleman F. Kempson, 17th Battalion London Regiment, had a gunshot wound in the head and a fractured thigh and ankle.

• Bob and Fred Hawkes, the not related players with Luton Town FC, came before the Appeals Tribunal this afternoon after the military authorities appealed against them being granted conditional exemption from military service by the Luton Tribunal on business interest grounds. Fred Hawkes was now granted two months exemption, while the case of Bob Hawkes was adjourned pending the consideration of several similar cases to his.

• On Thursday afternoon, the string band of the Northants Yeomanry (by kind permission of Lieut R. S. Williams, officer commanding) gave a programme of music to the wounded soldiers in Wardown Hospital.

• The Rev William Curry, Pastor of the Luton No 1 Primitive Methodist Circuit, sent a letter telling of his experiences as a chaplain to the Forces back to members of his church from "somewhere in France". He and a Presbyterian minister were operating from a YMCA hut in a camp of 2,000 soldiers. He wrote: "We live and sleep at the hut, which is well situated and is very popular. The men come to us in large numbers and, although our hut is one of the largest in France, our space is often severely taxes."

• Corporation colleagues gathered at the Town Hall on Thursday afternoon to present a 70-piece dinner service (supplied by Blundell Bros, Luton, Ltd) to Acting Medical Officer of Health Dr William Cox ahead of his marriage next Wednesday to Miss Frances Henrietta Coate, daughter of the Vicar of St Matthew's Church, High Town. The Bishop of St Albans was to conduct the wedding ceremony.