Mr Henry Impey

Henry Impey was born in 1865, and served as Mayor of Luton from 1918 - 1919. He had the dubious honour of being Mayor during the Peace Day Riots, and when people began to attack the town hall, he was smuggled out of Luton, never to return to live and work here, although he paid a few brief visits.

Following his death in Lincolnshire on April 17th, 1930, at the age of 65, his body was finally brought back to Luton for a funeral service at his beloved Mount Tabor Church in Castle Street, followed by burial at the General Cemetery in Rothesay Road.

It was the tragedy of his life that his work in Luton should have been cut short by the unfortunate peace celebration happenings in 1919, said his obituary report in The Luton News. Broken in health, the then Mayor of the borough had to leave the scene of his many trials and many triumphs.

Born in Luton, Henry Impey, worked for 8½ years in the Borough Surveyor's office, then was for four years a sanitary, drainage and building inspector and ultimately a surveyor and estate agent.

He was first returned to Luton Town Council in November 1902 and was unanimously elected Mayor for his fateful year on November 9th, 1918. He lived at Whitecroft, London Road, Luton.

At the election of Mr Impey's successor as Mayor, Councillor Stewart Hubbard recorded the thanks of the Council. Mayor Impey had ruled the Council as a man of business in a most able and efficient manner, with perfect fairness to everyone, and with despatch, said Mr Hubbard. The Mayor, as the responsible head of the town, had to accept all the blame for what occurred on Peace Day, but taking that blame had shattered his health. Whatever might have been Mr Impey's shortcomings, the penalty he had had to suffer was out of all proportion to whatever he might or might not have done, and it was the duty of every member of the Council to extend their sympathy and every measure of support to a colleague who had to bear an indignity out of all proportion to his shortcomings.

Following his departure from Luton, Mr Impey went first to Milton, then to Northampton and eventually to Sutton-on-Sea, Lincolnshire, where he served on the Mablethorpe and Sutton Urban District Council, finally becoming its chairman.