Diary: Recruiting Sunday heralded by snow

 

Stories from The Luton News, March 25th, 1915.

Snowstorms on Saturday had raised questions over whether Recruiting Sunday - the first day of spring - the following afternoon should be postponed until after Easter. But in the event the sun shone and Park Square, Luton, was filled to overflowing with an audience brought together to hear something of the needs of the 2nd 5th Battalion Beds Regiment, the Yeomanry and the New Army in the way of recruits.

Primarily, the meeting was called to secure recruits for the 2/5th Bedfords, for which 100 men are needed, but it was emphasised that the needs of the moment were far wider than that and in fact Major Orde could do with thousands of men.

Ahead of the meeting, the Luton Red Cross Band played in Park Square, while military brass and bugle bands paraded the streets, accompanied by Boy Scouts carrying placards about the meeting, Eventually the crowd that was attracted extended some way down Park Street and Church Street.

The Mayor, Councillor W. J. Primett, presided, supported by Major E. W. Brighten (commanding the 5th Battalion Beds Regiment), members of Luton's clergy and councillors. While the meeting was in progress, a detachment of 19 men from the battalion moved among the crowd to answer questions, especially in relation to conditions under which the men of the battalion were living at Bury St Edmunds, about which there had been "mischievous rumours".

  • The first recorded Luton-born casualty of the Dardanelles campaign, Artificer Engineer Arnold Wharton, was buried at sea after his ship HMS Irresistible struck a mine and sank on March 18th. His parents at 78 Hampton Road, Luton, received a telegram with the news on Saturday.

  • The official intimation of the burial of Pte Herbert. Geroge. Pateman (19) has been received by his father, who lives at 42 Ivy Road. The document states that he was buried behind the reserve trench near the old convent at La Boutillerie, but the date is not stated. A letter of sympathy was received from Sappers G. Wing and C. Dicker, who are serving with the E.A.R.E. on the East Coast.

  • Pte J. Burley, 2nd Battalion, Beds Regt, wrote to his mother at 71 Warwick Road, Luton, that while he was well, his friends Bill Pope had been wounded in the arm and Albert Kilby killed in action on March 12th. The minor difficulties he had to contend with were boiling water in the trench with two candles and frying a piece of steak the same way.

  • Yesterday at Luton Borough Court, a private in the 3rd Beds Regt denied a charged of being an absentee. The prisoner was found at his house in Park Place by police, and he said he had torn up his pass. He admitted having several orders to return, but he said he had had enough and wanted to get out of it. He was remanded to await an escort.

  • Arthur Eames, one of three sons of Mrs W. Eames, of 107 Cambridge Street, at the front, wrote of his experiences at Neuve Chapelle. He said: "I must say it is a terrible strain on the nerves, but still we cleared the Germans out of this place.. We must have captured over 1,000 of them. In fact they seemed as though they all wanted to give themselves up. We were all over the field, picking up the wounded, Germans and all. Two of our stretcher bearers got killed while picking up the wounded. We didn't half give the Germans something along this line - about 10,000 casualties."

  • In contrast, William Stenhouse, of 36 Clifton Road, Luton, admitted at Bedford Borough Sessions on Tuesday that he lied when he tried to join the E.A.R.E. When being attested as a recruit he told Capt Wilson that he had not served in the Army before when in fact he was discharged from the 5th Beds with defective eyesight. He was discharged and advised to go back to the Barracks and tell the truth. They might be glad to have him.

  • Dallow Road Friends' Adult School Institute attracts hundreds of men of the Notts and Derby Regt resort every evening. The air-gun range is very popular with an average of 300 shots being fired there each evening. The billiards table is also a great attraction, while draughts and other games attract devotees. In one week recently more than 400 cups of tea, coffee and cocoa were supped, and 500 sheets of writing paper supplied.

  • After a term of three years and seven months, Mr W. D. Jackson terminated his work as Leader of the Central Mission on Sunday, when he preached at both morning and evening services and presided at the united meeting in the afternoon. Mr Jackson is leaving Luton in a few days and will commence his duties as Pastor of the Thomas Champness Memorial Church, Lutterworth, on Easter Sunday.

  • Burr Street dealer James Kirby was fined £10 with 8 shillings costs, with the alternative of a month in prison, for buying two pairs of boots from a soldier of the Notts and Derby Regiment, the boots being the property of the military authorities. Mr Kirby said the soldier told him the boots were his own, and he would not otherwise have bought them. Chairman Mr Phillips said it was a very disgraceful thing that people should purchase anything from soldiers. The defendant must have known they were military boots when the man was in uniform.

  • Yesterday a boy of 14, Archibald Kenningham, of 59 Windsor Street, met with a nasty mishap at the Cocoa Works [Dallow Road]. About 9 am he was wheeling a load on a truck when he slipped, and his leg went beneath the truck, which fell on it and broke it. He was conveyed to Dr Lloyd, who set the leg, and then to the Bute Hospital, where he remains an in-patient.