Digest of stories from The Luton News: Thursday, August 22nd, 1918.

The death occurred on Tuesday, August 13th, at the Royal Military Hospital, Devonport, of Pte Albert Allen (Army Ordnance Corps), whose home was at 185 North Street, Luton. Pte Allen was the eldest son of Mr Frederick Allen, hat manufacturer, 83 Wenlock Street, and before joining the Forces was employed in his father's business.

The deceased soldier (pictured right) went to France in September 1916 for service in the Expeditionary Force Canteen, but was invalided home after two months and drafted into the Army Ordnance Corps. When taken ill he was working at Devonport.

He was well known in the High Town district, and was a member of the Luton Conservative Club, and the club flag was flown at half-mast on Saturday, the day of his funeral at Luton Church Cemetery. Full military honours were accorded to the late Pte Allen at Devonport, a detachment of officers and men from his regiment acting as escort to the station.

• At Luton Town Hall last night, a gathering representative of the whole of the community heard a splendid address by Mr G. H. Roberts MP, Minister of Labour, who attended at the invitation of the Labour Advisory Committee to speak on the Whitley Report [on relations between employers and employees]. Calling for national unity, he said the first great question after the war would be the resettlement of demobilised men, and he wanted all classes to unite in showing the men when they returned that they were anxious to secure for them a speedy and satisfactory return. However much was done for them, the debt owed to them could never be repaid.

• Miss Dorrie E. Ireland, of Wellington Street, Luton, a member of the Women's Land Army employed on Mr Herbert Inskip's farm in Bedfordshire, was cycling home on Saturday when she had an accident. She was assisted to the surgery of Dr W. J. Johnson, where it was found she had dislocated her left elbow. She is now making good progress.

• We have to record a third death in an aeroplane accident in little more than three months. Flight Cadet Ronald Cunningham, not yet 19 and the youngest son of Mr and Mrs Christopher Cunningham, of Gateside, Cardiff Road, met his death on Friday evening, August 10th, at an aerodrome in Norfolk. He fell from the air, his machine coming down in a spinning nose dive from a height of several hundred feet. An inquest was held on Saturday evening, when a verdict of accidental death was returned. His body was returned to Luton by train and the mortal remains of the young airman were laid to rest yesterday in the General Cemetery.

• Sapper John Grummitt (524628, Royal Engineers), son of Mr Grummitt, of Warren Hill Lodge, Luton Hoo, in a letter to his sister, says he has been decorated with the French Croix de Guerre. He gives no details of his bravery, but suggests he “jolly well earned it”. Spr Grummitt (pictured right), who is 24, joined up in June 1915, before which he worked at Messrs J. W. Green's brewery. He has been in France since Easter this year.

• On Monday afternoon an eight-year-old boy named Albert Edward Boon, whose home is at 28 St Ann's Road, Luton, was swinging on the tail-board of a weighing machine in Messrs Cumberland's yard when it came unfastened and fell on him. The boy was placed in Mr Durrant's cart and driven home by William Bowler. On finding his left thigh was broken, the boy was removed to the Bute Hospital.

• Mrs Harriet Hepworth, of 100 Langley Street, Luton, has received a letter dated July 7th from her husband, Rifleman George Thomas Hepworth, who is a prisoner of war in Germany. The writer says he is well now, but he had been in hospital with a very bad abscess caused by a blow he received from the butt end of a rifle in 1915. Parcels containing clothing etc sent out to him have not been received. [Rifleman Hepworth, who previously worked at Vauxhall, had been a prisoner of war at Doeberitz and Sagan in Germany. He had first enlisted in 1898 and had seen pre-Great War service in South Africa and India. Following repatriation he returned to live at Langley Street with Harriet, whom he married in Sheffield in 1913, and later resided at 164 High Town Road. He died in 1958.]