Digest of stories from the Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph: July 14th, 1917.

Biggest local story of the week was the opening of a murder trial at St Albans in which a 16-year-old youth from Wood Green had allegedly confessed to the murder of a 26-year-old milliner's assistant from St Albans. Biggest headline of the week was that the previous Saturday's edition of the Telegraph had sold a record 9,980 copies of the 10,002 printed.

Biggest national story of the week was the loss through an internal explosion of the Dreadnought battleship HMS Vanguard at anchor in Scapa Flow on July 9th with heavy loss of life. There had been only three survivors of the disaster and one of those, an officer, had since died. It would be in subsequent editions of The Luton News and the Saturday Telegraph that stories of three Lutonians lost in the explosion would be revealed, and that one Lutonian crew member had survived only because he was on leave.

It was otherwise a fairly thin week for Luton stories in the Saturday Telegraph.

• We understand that in addition to gifts of £500 to the Bute Hospital and £250 the Children's Home, it is the intention of the family of the late Councillor A. A. Oakley to carry our what they know to have been his intention in a further direction, namely the benefiting of the Primitive Methodist Church in High Town, with which he was associated for so many years. Exactly what form the gift will take has not yet been decided, but we have it on very reliable authority that a substantial gift is to be made in accordance with the wishes on the deceased councillor.

• After an interval of three years, the firm of Messrs George Kent Ltd today revived the one-time annual sports of their Biscot Road employees. The whole of the proceeds are being devoted to the local Prisoners of War Fund and St Dunstan's Hotel for blinded soldiers and sailors. A crowd of between 2,000 and 3,000 were attracted to the firm's sports field, Halfway Meadow, just off the Chaul End Lane.

• For bravery in the field, Sgt Harry Stallan (pictured right), of the Bedfordshire Regiment and formerly of Luton, has had the coveted honour of the Distinguished Conduct Medal conferred upon him. As an employee of the Great Northern Railway Co he had worked at the Goods Department at Luton. His award was given for leading his platoon over the top when his officer was wounded. Under heavy machine gun fire they took shelter in shell holes and held on for 19 hours.

• At a meeting of the Bedfordshire Chamber of Agriculture on Saturday, strong protest was made against the Order prohibiting the sale of horses. Mr L. Clark characterised the Order as a most iniquitous thing. One man told him he had tried to get a licence to sell his horses but could not and had to keep the horses at home doing nothing and eating food. He thought the meeting ought to pass a resolution urging that the Order should be withdrawn at once.

• Considerable interest was taken in the wedding of Miss Edith Emile Cole, eldest daughter of builder and contractor Mr Arthur Cole, of Culverdene, High Town Road, Luton, and Mr Harold Spenser Pepper, son of the late Rev Henry Pepper, of Safron Walden, and Mrs Pepper, of Lytchett Matravers, Dorset. The wedding took place at Park Street Baptist Church on Thursday morning.

• In the Church of The Most Holy Trinity, Kensington, on Thursday, Mr C. Owen Baines, of Paignton and former Assistant Borough Surveyor of Luton, was married to Florence Ann, only daughter of Mr and Mrs William Barber, of Kensington.

• Another meeting of the newly formed Indoor Sports League was the held in the Thermo Offices, York Street, on Thursday evening. The clubs represented included Beech Hill Unionist, Social, Commer Cars, Thermo and Market Hill Conservative Club. The Liberal and Club was unable to join due to pre-arranged competition, and the Labour Club said it would be unable to find enough players with many of its members working night shift in munitions. It was agreed the games to be played would be whist, billiards, single cribbage, draughts and two versions of dominoes.

• The intimation that the pines of Ampthill have to be sacrificed to the nation's necessity came as a personal blow to many people who for years have made holiday excursions to Ampthill for the pleasure of an afternoon in her health-giving pine wood, and Ampthill's spirited fight for her beauty spot will be watched with keen interest, and with the fervent hope that it may succeed. Ampthill without the pines is unthinkable.