Comrades club formally opened

Digest of stories from the Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph: July 20, 1918.

This afternoon the extensive and well-fitted premises in Upper George Street adapted as a club by the Luton branch of the Comrades of the Great War were opened by Capt Towse, the blind VC. He is on the Comrades' executive at headquarters.

At 2.30 he went straight to the club and formally opened the building. He wore the uniform of the old Scottish Regiment. Accompanied by Mr William Austin and the branch officials he went over the spacious premises.

The club has been wonderfully fitted up and furnished, being replete with a lounge, game and concert rooms, billiard room, a fully-fitted bar etc. It provides accommodation for a very large membership.

  • The news that Sgt Robert Moores (Royal Engineers) has been awarded the Meritorious Service Medal will be received with considerable pleasure in Luton. The award has been made for valuable services he has rendered in the war for a lengthy period. Sgt Moores is the eldest son of the late Mr James Moores, who was for 20 years employed at the Water Works in Crescent Road. Before the war Sgt Moores was employed at the Cambridge Water Works as a draughtsman. He is an old boy of Waller Street School and served his apprenticeship at Hayward Tyler & Co.

  • In his annual report on the health and sanitary conditions of Luton, Dr W. G. Cox, Acting Medical Officer of Health, refers at length to the housing question. To the Local Government Board's inquiry in July 1917, Luton Town Council showed that there was in the borough a deficiency of 1,100 houses. This was due to the fact that normally houses are built at the rate of 500 per annum in Luton, but during the three years of the war only 316 had been built. Housing conditions were, however, no worse than in most towns of the same size, considerably better than in many. And the best testimony to the sanitary condition of the town is the fact that typhoid fever is a comparatively rare disease. Luton has no slums in terms of large areas of dilapidated and insanitary property, but there are a few areas which are not a credit to the town and which will have to be demolished after the war.

  • This morning at the Borough Court, Robert Armstrong, aged 43, a tram driver living at 78 Inkerman Street, was charged with being an absentee under the Military Service Act. Asked if he had received his calling up papers, defendant said he had been told that a letter was awaiting him at his old lodgings in Park Street. Asked why he did not report, he rep;lied: “Neglect. It was such short notice, and practically no time to arrange affairs.” He was fined £2 and remanded for an escort.

  • The dull weather this afternoon has caused much regret, especially among the artillerymen at Biscot, for they are holding their regimental sports at Wardown. The races etc have proceeded during the afternoon, although the weather has had a detrimental affect on the crowds. Lieut Howell, Gunner White and the Sports Committee have had a busy time, and the arrangements have worked smoothly. The prizes are to be distributed this evening by Brigadier-General C. H. de la Montague Hill.

  • At a meeting of the Committee of Management of the Luton Children's Sick and Convalescent Home, Mr Crew presented the Medical Superintendent's Report which stated that 21 patients were in the Home at the beginning of the quarter and 79 had been admitted since. The number discharged as cured was 75 and 23 remained at the end of the quarter.

  • The danger caused to the public by the throwing of stones was again emphasised at Luton Borough Court this morning when a 15-year-old boy was summoned for an offence in New Bedford Road on Monday. It appeared that two R.A.M.C. Men driving a motor ambulance with four patients to Wardown overtook four carts laden with chalk material. The driver sounded his horn three times and the defendant, who was the driver of the rear cart, turned his head and picked up a handful of chalk and threw it at the passing vehicle. L-Cpl Edward George Atto caught one lump in the eye, necessitating his receiving attention at the hospital. The boy was fined 15 shillings.

  • A well-known firm in Bedford has had to put up the shutters temporarily with the following notice: “Closed. Illness of staff. That dreaded flu!”