Comrades and Pensions Committee

Digest of stories from The Luton News: Thursday, April 11th, 1918.

At the meeting of Luton Town Council on Tuesday, the Town Clerk (Mr William Smith) reported receipt of a letter from the Ministry of Pensions asking for the Council's observations on a letter the Government department had received from the Comrades of the Great War, and signed by Mr W. C. Pritchard, secretary of that organisation.

It informed the Ministry that the Luton War Pensions Committee recently elected Messrs Frank Rudd and H. Smith to serve on that body, both representatives of the National Federation of Discharged and Demobilised Soldiers and Sailors, and the writer was informed that the Committee had already two representatives of that organisation in the persons of Messrs Suttle and Mabley.

It asked the Ministry, if the appointment was not confirmed, to be so good as to consider whether the nominees of the Comrades of the Great War should not be appointed in place of Messrs Rudd and Smith, in order that both bodies might be equally represented.

The Town Clerk remarked that these various organisations springing up voluntarily and otherwise were getting quite wrong opinions as to their positions. All the Town Council had to do was to appoint two discharged or disabled soldiers and, having done that, it was not fair that either the Comrades of the Great War or any other people should question the decision.

There was no need for confirmation of the appointment from any authority, so he promptly replied that Messrs Rudd and Smith were elected by the Council, and as the elections were by ballot it was not possible to give any explanation why those two men were chosen in preference to the nominees of the Comrades of the Great War.

With regard to the statement concerning Messrs Suttle and Mabley, the former was secretary of the War Pensions Committee and not a member, and the latter was elected as a representative of Labour on the nomination of the Luton and District Trades and Labour Council.

  • Mr Herbert W. Booth, Chairman of the local branch of the National Federation of Discharged and Demobilised Sailors and Soldiers and a member of the National Executive Committee of the same, was on Saturday last elected as Chairman of the newly-constituted London and Home Counties Divisional Council. The Division in question comprised the counties of Middlesex, Berkshire, Surrey, Sussex, Essex, Hampshire, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire. Some 70 branches of the Federation are represented on the Divisional Council, with a membership considerably over 12,000.

  • Residents of Leagrave Road and district will hear with some degree of satisfaction that the Luton Town Council are inviting tenders for the making up of Leagrave Road, between the Midland Railway bridge and the houses north of the Skefko works.

  • Yesterday, in the dinner hour at the Skefko Works, Harry Baker, aged 16, of Harlington, was playing on some girders about eight feet high, when he fell off. He sustained a nasty cut on the back of the head. First aid was given at the works, and the bot was taken to the Bute Hospital, where he is going on well.

  • Many townsfolk will regret to hear that the popular 'Albert Edward' (Gunner A. E. White, of Biscot) is in Wardown Hospital suffering, we understand, from an attack of influenza.

  • At the Town Council meeting on Tuesday. Councillor Unwin drew attention to the overcrowding of trams on the High Town route this week, and said people were hanging on behind, were standing with the conductor and sitting on the rails, and there was very great danger. Alderman Oakley, as Chairman of the Watch Committee, said the matters should have the attention of the police.

  • The wedding took place at St Nicholas' Chapel, Ipswich on Easter Monday, with Salvation Army honours, of Trumpeter John William Champkin, of Luton, and Miss Florence Mary Hazel, of Ipswich. Previous to entering military service, the bridegroom was employed at the Luton General Post Office.

  • Mr Gilbert Small, the old Luton cricketer, of 24 Albion Road, Luton, has had news from the War Office that his eldest son, Lieut Frank Gilbert Hurrell Small is reported missing as from March 24th. Lieut Small took up his commission only a few months ago, and was recently on home leave, returning to France last month. He was in the London Regiment, and last October was awarded the Military Medal for bravery in the field while serving with the machine gun section. [Lieut Small was later confirmed to be a wounded prisoner of war in Germany and died at Kassel as a result of his wounds on June 9th, 1918.]

  • Pte Alfred Edward Draper, R.A.M.C., of 13 Newcombe Road, Luton, aged 24, was killed in action on March 21st, the first day of the big battle. Before joining the Colours he was employed by Mr H. Clark, Dumfries Street, for six years.

  • In the short space of six months, Capt P. W. S. Bulman, son of the Vicar of St Paul's Church, Luton, and serving in France with the Royal Air Force, has been mentioned in despatches, awarded the Military Cross, appointed Captain, and this week has received a bar to the MC. He is Flight Commander of one of the squadrons in the great offensive.

  • Second Lieut Stewart A. Parrott (Machine Gun Corps), youngest son of Mr T. Parrott, hat manufacturer of Stuart Street, has been severely wounded in the shoulder. He had undergone an operation for the extraction of a bullet and is now at the Lord Kitchener Hospital, Brighton.

  • Mr and Mrs A. Wright, of Russell Rise, Luton, have just received the official news that their eldest son, Pte Arthur Wright, of the East Surrey Regiment, was wounded in the hip on March 23rd, the second time he has been wounded in France. He is now in a hospital in Yorkshire and going on well.

  • Pte Joseph West, of 111 Guildford Street, Luton, has been severely wounded in the right shoulder and back after serving nearly two years in France as a stretcher-bearer with the Royal Sussex Regiment. He is going on favourably in hospital.

  • Mrs Shedell, of 135 Ashburnham Road, Luton received a telegram on Sunday morning stating that her husband, Second Lieut J. F. M. Shedell, of the Royal Berkshire Regiment, had been admitted into the 5th British Red Cross Hospital in France, seriously wounded in the thigh.

  • Official news and telegrams were received last week by Mr and Mrs John Smith, of 20 Collingdon Street, Luton, stating that their eldest son, Gunner Herbert Smith, of the Tank Corps, was seriously wounded on March 28th and is now lying dangerously ill with a gunshot wound in the head at No 6 British Red Cross Hospital, Etaples, France. He joined up three years ago at Biscot, but was transferred to the Tanks last June and went to France at Christmas.

  • Mrs Odell, of 14 Langley Street, Luton, has visited her husband, Pte A. Odell, of the Herts Regiment, in a Glasgow military hospital. He has been sent there suffering from shrapnel wounds in the calf of one of his legs, sustained on the second day of the big German offensive. Pte Odell, who had worked for hat manufacturer Mr Allen, of Bute Street, was found to be progressing satisfactorily.