Digest of stories from The Luton News: Thursday, October 4th, 1917.

• Kingsway during World War One, Laporte chemical works to the left.

About 8.30 last night a fire occurred at Messrs Laporte's chemical works in Kingsway, Dunstable Road. It is believed that a spark from a passing locomotive on the railway caused the damage.

About ten tons of sulphur caught fire and it had become very dangerous when one of the workmen discovered it. The fire brigade was called by telephone and Chief Officer Andrew and his men soon had the motor engine on the scene.

Water was pumped on to the burning sulphur from a hydrant, but it was over two hours before the fumes could be got under. The men had a harder task owing to the sulphur penetrating their eyes. They were able to leave about 11.30 pm.

• Friday night's London Gazette announced that the King had been graciously pleased to declare that Anastasia Michailovna Wernher (hitherto known as Countess Anastasia Michailovna Torby), wife of Major Harold Augustus Wernher, shall enjoy the same style, title, place, pre-eminence and precedence as the daughter of an Earl of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Major Wernher's bride will therefore in future be known as Lady Zia Wernher.

• The death in Palestine on September 3rd has been announced of Rifleman Sydney David East, London Regiment, second son of Mrs East, of Lyndhurst, Moor Street, Luton. Before the war he was a member of Chapel Street Wesleyan Sunday School. He joined up in June 1915 and went to Egypt in March 1916.

• After serving in France for 12 months, Pte Sydney Charles Powell, of the Royal Fusiliers, whose home address was 74 Ash Road, Luton, has been killed in France. He left the employ of Messrs A. Hucklesby &Co, where he had worked for 17 years as a packer, to join the Royal Fusiliers in June 1915. His wife is left with three children.

• News has reached Mr and Mrs Loughton, of 75 Chase Street, Luton, that their son, Pte James Loughton (Beds Regiment) was killed in action on the night of September 13th. Although only 20, he was serving at Landguard before the war, and had been wounded three times since the outbreak.

• Pte Sidney Charles Peters, son of Mr and Mrs Peters, of 74 Old Bedford Road, Luton, who was previously reported missing, is now a prisoner of war at Dulmen, Westphalia, Germany. He joined the Royal Fusiliers soon after the war commenced.

• We are pleased to announce that Flt Sub-Lieut Bernard Arthur Smart (pictured right), son of Mr and Mrs Charles Smart, of Chorlton House, London Road, Luton, has been awarded the Distinguished Service Order. He was educated at the Luton Modern School and before the war was engaged in the hat trade on his own account. Within a few weeks of the outbreak of war he was in the uniform of the Royal Naval Air Service. He went out to the Dardanelles and served through the Suvla Bay campaign until within a fortnight of the evacuation, when he contracted malaria and was sent to hospital at Lemnos. Returning to England, he quickly obtained his pilot's licence.

• Second Lieut W. W. Brown was gazetted to the Royal Field Artillery on September 29th. He is the son of Mr and Mrs W. W. Brown, of 6 Dunstable Road, Luton, and was educated at Luton Modern School.

• Since June 30th, 1914, when Drill Instructor Plummer resigned, the position has been vacant but it has now been filled by the appointment of Coy-Sgt-Major Charles Kitchener, Beds Regiment, who was discharged from the Army on September 6th as medically unfit.

• Mr Harry Lacey (Messrs H. Lacey & Sons) has enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps and is engaged in aircraft construction. Both his sons have been in the Army for some time, and the difficulties of getting labour to carry on decided him to offer his own services in the national interest.

• It is with pleasure we record that an old Luton Modern School employee, Mr Watson (pictured right), has been granted a commission in the South Staffordshire Regiment. He answered the call to arms in November 1914 while the North Midland Division was billeted in Luton. A native of Hastings, he was at the Modern School for two years.

• The last public lecture to be delivered by Mr James Saunders, the well-known local naturalist, was given on Monday evening at a meeting of the Bury Park Church Guild. Mr T. G. Hobbs, presiding, presented to Mr Saunders a handsomely mounted picture of Luton Parish Church in recognition of his services to the town.

• Under the auspices of the Luton branch of the Theosophical Society, a lecture on Buddhism was given by Mr Loftus Hare, of London, in the large hall of the Free Library on Tuesday evening to a large and appreciative audience.

• The Corporation Tolls and Municipal Buildings Committee are to prepare a scheme for the reconstruction of office accommodation of office accommodation on the Manchester Street side of the Town Hall.

• What an epidemic of perambulators there is in Luton's main thoroughfare on every fine Monday afternoon! These vehicles with their interesting burdens claim a very large share of the footpaths, travelling as they do sometimes single file, sometimes two abreast, and the ordinary pedestrian has to walk warily to escape danger. In a walk on Monday afternoon from the News office along Manchester Street and George Street, we thought it might be interesting to count the perambulators passed, but the number exceeding the hundred before the Corn Exchange was reached, the task was given up in despair.

• Mr W. Humphrey, of 151 Wellington Street, a veteran allotment holder, writes about a new experiment he put into practice this season. He cut the eyes from a number of potatoes before using for table and planted them on comparatively poor ground, assisted by a top dressing. The eyes thus cut weighed 1¼ lb, and the resulting crop was 46 lb of vegetables.

• The children of Leagrave Council School, Norton Road, have been doing useful work in connection with the scheme for the gathering of blackberries. About 200 Leagrave children commenced the work last week, and it was carried out in conjunction with nature study lessons on the bramble bushes. In two days the children gathered 2 cwts 2 qtrs 6 lbs of the berries.

• The other day the small children of Beech Hill Infants' School had a harvest festival among themselves and brought all the fruit and vegetables down for the men at Wardown. They looked so pleased and pretty with their gifts that Sister Hobbs has sent a snapshot (below) taken of them as they entered the porch.