Stories from the Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph: September 30th, 1916.

Second Officer Andrew, of the Luton Fire Brigade, has received an appreciative letter from Mr H. N. Davis, managing director of the Davis Gas Stove Co Ltd, in connection with the big fire at the works on September 20th.

The letter reads: "Will you please communicate to the members of the Brigade our sincere thanks and expressions of appreciation for the promptitude with which they answered our call on the morning of the 20th, and also for the unstinted energy with which they grappled with the situation."

The Saturday Telegraph added its own appreciation of the Fire Brigade with most of its front page devoted to the story of its development and highlighting some of its achievements. Second Officer Andrew is pictured, right.

The article featured a photograph of the Brigade's latest fire appliance (pictured above), which cost £1,000 in 1914. It replaced horse-drawn vans that were still retained as a back-up. The new machine had attended several major fires, including one at Farley Farm that lasted four days in 1914, a big blaze at the Dunstable Road stables in 1915 in which eight horses were burned to death, and in 1916 had attended major outbreaks at the Balmforth factory in June and more recently at Wrest Park and the Davis company's Diamond Foundry in Dallow Road.

Luton had had a Fire Brigade since 1836, when the appliance pictured below was its principal vehicle for fire-fighting. Before the fire station in Church Street was built in 1901 the Brigade operated out of an old shed in Stuart Street and, with no horses, fireman had to drag their machine through the streets by their own labour.

• Mr and Mrs Stimson, of 45 Alma Street, Luton, have learned that their son, Cpl Percy Bertram Stimson, has not been seen by his comrades of the Londons (Queen's) after having been wounded on September 18th during one of the charges. He was not picked up by any of the battalion's stretcher-bearers, but the hope was expressed that men from another battalion had found him. [He is officially recorded as having died of wounds on September 17th, 1916.]

• The burial took place in Flamstead churchyard on Wednesday afternoon of L-Cpl Joshua Dyer, of Pepperstock. He was only 19 years of age and prior to enlistment he was employed on the Luton Hoo estate.

• Official notification has been received by Mr William Cherry, of Halfway House, Dunstable Road, Luton, that his son, Pte H. G. Cherry, of the Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment, was wounded in action of Delville Wood on September 17th. Prior to joining up, Pte Cherry was employed at the Vauxhall Motor Works. He is now in a military hospital at Richmond.

• Hearty congratulations are offered to Mr and Mrs Albert Massey, of St Albans, on the fact that their second son, Cpl Ralph Massey, of the Royal Garrison Artillery, has been awarded the Military Medal. At the time of enlistment, Ralph Massey was engaged as a clerk in Messrs Barclay's Bank at Luton.

• A memorial service for Second Lieut Alexander Pigott Wernher, Welsh Guards, killed in action September 10th, will be held in the private chapel, Luton Hoo, tomorrow (Sunday) at 2pm. Owing to the extremely limited accommodation, a memorial service will also take place in the Parish Church, Luton, at the same hour tomorrow.

• A conscientious objector from Luton who called himself "an ambassador of God" was finally given 21 days in which to find work of national importance following a military appeal to the Central Tribunal. He had at first been granted absolute exemption from military service when he appeared before the Luton Tribunal, but this was reduced to conditional exemption on condition he found work, after being accused of "loafing about". After the Central Tribunal backed the conditional exemption, Town Clerk Mr William Smith reported that the Committee of National Importance would say what work the objector must do.

• Boys looking for conkers in Stockwood Park last evening, discovered the body of a soldier floating in Farley Green Pond - "often spoken of as The Suicide's Pond". Police recovered the body of Luton-born Frank Spacey (known to the military authorities as Frank Mitchell, of the Royal Berkshire Regiment). An inquest was to be held into his suspected suicide.

• We regret to announce the death of Mrs Mares, widow of the late Mr John George Mares, which occurred last night at her residence in George Street after a short illness. Mr and Mrs Mares came to Luton 51 years ago and commenced their outfitting business in a little shop in front of the old Corn Exchange. When the old building was pulled down they removed into George Street, where, following the death of her husband 40 years ago, Mrs Mares kept up the business. She leaves five sons and three daughters.

• Summer time for 1916 comes to an end today, and everybody will agree that the experiment has been an unqualified success. The announcement was made that at 3 am (summer time) on Sunday, October 1st, Greenwich time will be restored by putting the clock back to 2 am.

• It will probably come as a surprise to many to know that Ernest Simms, the Town centre-forward, is now experiencing a new phase of Army life. It had been reported that he had come down south and was about to proceed to France with a draft of the R.G.A., in which he is a gunner. Instead, he was suddenly transferred to another department and is now a military policeman.

• Owing to exigences over which we have no control, telephonic communication with Brentford has been restricted and we regret we are unable to provide our usual exhaustive report of Luton's London Combination away game. A brief stop press report gave the result as Brentford 1 Luton Town 3, Roe giving a scratch Luton side a half time lead, centre-forward Dudley increasing the lead 10 minutes into the second half and Brown completing the scoring after Brentford had converted a penalty.