From the Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph, May 22nd, 1915

The marching party of the 2/5th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment arrived in Luton today in the course of their recruiting tour through the county. They are out to get 500 men for a third line, and left the training quarters on Thursday.

They will be in Luton until Tuesday morning, and will march day by day from place to place in the county until June 11th, when they will have visited every town and practically every village. At Luton today they were given a very cordial welcome, where the Town Crier announced their arrival and a big crowd assembled.

The detachment is under the command of Major Orlebar and includes six officers and 100 men who have volunteered for service abroad but are not allowed to go because they are practically all under 19. It also includes the brass and bugle bands of the battalion.

Yesterday morning the detachment marched out of Shillington and came though Aspley End and Higham Gobion to Barton, where a short halt was made. Then the march was continued to Streatley. It will be seen what excellent marchers the young men are when it was mentioned that with full equipment and rifles on a very hot morning they did the distance from the last house in Barton to the top of the cutting - 1¼ miles or more - in 22 minutes.

This morning the detachment marched to Luton via Toddington, which was not intended to be visited until Thursday. This deviation from the route was well justified for in Toddington the men were found to be very sympathetic to the movement. Even the village of Chalton proved a very fruitful ground. At Leagrave, too, it was found desirable to stop longer than was planned, making the arrival in Luton over an hour later than would otherwise have been the case.

The programme for Tuesday originally provided for a march via Markyate, Caddington and Whipsnade to Dunstable, but this has been cancelled in favour of a visit to Leighton Buzzard to take advantage of the market crowd there.

• Pte Guy Harmer, 24th County of London Regiment, wrote to his parents, Mr and Mrs George Harmer, of Downs Road, Luton, of his narrow escape at the front. He felt the force of an explosion not more than four yards away. "I thought I had got it in the legs, but fortunately it was only earth that hit me. The shell had landed right in a dugout, immediately killing the two inside and blowing everything to pieces."

• Mr and Mrs William Hyder, of 8 Cardiff Grove, Luton, received the sad news during the Empire Day celebration at Christ Church Schools yesterday that their son, Pte Cyril Hyder, has been wounded in the head by shrapnel. Pte Hyder, a member of the Civil Service Battalion, had been removed to the base and would probably be sent to England. His parents are headmaster and headmistress of Christ Church Schools.

• The wife of Pte Frank Corke, of the 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, received a letter from the chaplain to the forces in Boulogne to say her husband was in hospital there "seriously, though not, I believe, dangerously wounded". Pte Corke later wrote himself saying, "You will be grieved to know that I have lost my left arm and am wounded in the right leg, but this is only a flesh wound and not dangerous".

• Pte Mingay, brother of Mrs Hern, of 26 Gloucester Road, Luton, learned in a letter that he was in the Royal Albert Hospital, Woolwich, with a shrapnel wound to his right hand. He had gone to get water and during his absence his comrades had all been killed.

• Letters from two members of staff who had enlisted with the 1/24th County of London Regiment were read out by headmaster Mr Mander at the Empire Day celebrations at Hitchin Road Boys' School. Pte L. G. Wheeler, 2687, wrote about his experience of digging a communications trench while having to fall flat to the ground every time a rocket lit up the landscape. And Pte G. Wells, 2683, wrote that he was a company runner, attached to Headquarters Staff, whose duty it was to carry dispatched to company commanding officers - "rather exciting work, especially at night".

• Pte Douglas Brodie, also with the 1/24th Londons, wrote to his mother at Rathfarnham, Dunstable Road, Luton, saying he hadn't had bread for a fortnight and was living on bully beef and biscuits. "We have has enough biscuits not to last us for some time to some, but don't see much prospect of getting bread again yet."

• Mr Batkin Woods, of Luton, also with the Londons, writing to his brother Gerald referred to bullets used by the opposing forces. "Our bullets go right through and make a clean wound. But when one of theirs hits you in the head, instead of going through, they burst and, of course, smashed your head to pieces. It is nothing else but brutal murder."

• The Luton branch of the United Kingdom Commercial Travellers Association received acknowledgements from officers and men of the 1st and 2nd Battalions, Beds Regt, for the 44,000 cigarettes sent out to the British Expeditionary Force. Among individual letters of thanks were ones from Pte W. Parr, 9919, L-Cpl Neville, 9900, and Pte W. T. Panter, from Leagrave.

• While the big eight ton cathedral organ which was the principal attraction at the Grand Theatre last week (see advert for the show, right) was being taken down in the early hours of Sunday morning, a heavy part slipped and pinned Mr Philip Reeves, manager to Zona Vevey and Max Erard Co, to the wall by one of his arms, which was broken and badly crushed. He was taken to the Bute Hospital by police ambulance.