Stories from The Luton News: Thursday, October 12th, 1916.

A very pleasing and original advertisement of the Mayor's new waste paper scheme appeared in the Luton streets on Saturday. It was dainty little Shetland pony, the property of Mr J. Randall, dyer, of 71 Langley Road.

Affixed to the basket seat on its back were poster boards announcing the scheme, which is in aid of local war charities, and asking that all promises of waste paper, newspapers and old books and magazines should be sent to the central depot at the Plait Hall, Waller Street, where sacks will be provided.

As the pony is supposed to be the smallest in England, it created much interest. It is the smaller of a pair owned by Mr Randall, and a good suggestion is made by him that the pony will also be a useful flag day asset.

• During the last 12 and a half years, Mr Saunders Snr, builder of Princess Street, has sought to soothe a disordered nervous system by the quiet occupation of fishing. Of the 10,000 fish he has caught, many have been returned to their native waters, while others have been used to stock pools that had previously had no fish, and the lake at Wardown has had examples placed in it, chiefly perch, bream and roach.

• The danger of boys throwing stones was emphasised at the Borough Court yesterday when a 12-year-old from Tennyson Road was fined 2s 6d for breaking an insulator on a telegraph pole at the London Road allotments. The boy said he was throwing at acorns on a tree and his father said he had punished him. The Mayor, presiding, said stone throwing was a perfect pest.

• Also at the court, Ambrose Holland, licensee of the Richard the Third pub, asked that the license be transferred to John Solomon. Mr Holland said he was now a soldier and his wife was unable to carry the pub on. A temporary transfer was granted.

• The funeral took place on Monday at the Church Cemetery of two infant children of the late Pte Frank Lewin, of the 1/5th Beds Regiment, who died while on active service in Egypt on June 28th last.

• Luton Education Committee on Tuesday paid tribute to Mrs Hannah Hyder, who had tendered her resignation after 27 years as head teacher of Christ Church School for Girls with effect from the Christmas holidays. Education Committee Chairman Alder Arnold said he could only speak in the highest terms of Mrs Hyder's services.

• The quarterly report of the Bute Hospital Committee of Management showed there had been 118 admissions, making 145 patients at the beginning of the period with those left from the previous quarter. There were eight deaths, and 98 patients had left cured or benefited.

• Remarkable facts were disclosed at an inquest on Tuesday concerning the tragic end of a single man named Samuel Warner, aged 54, of no settled abode. A jury was told that the deceased had been seen at the Old English Gentleman in Hitchin Road at about 7 o'clock on Saturday evening as he climbed into a stable block at the back to get corn for his donkey. Later he was found pinned in a window that had come down on him and broken his neck. A verdict of accidental death was recorded.

• The Rev C. W. A. Brookes, Secretary of the George Kent War Savings Association, reported that in just over three months 1,803 of the 15s 6d certificates had been purchased in contributions from about 1,000 members, averaging nearly £100 a week.

• Despite his advancing years, the Bishop of St Albans [the Rt Rev Edgar Jacob] is putting great energy into his itinerary in connection with the National Mission of Repentance and Hope. After his Sunday morning message at St Mary's Parish Church in Luton, he went to Biscot Camp the following morning and addressed the officers there in the YMCA Hut. The Bishop was thanked by the Commandant (Col Alexander) before leaving by motor car. The Bishop is pictured, right, leaving the hut at Biscot.

• The funeral took place at the Church Cemetery on Monday afternoon of Cpl William Gurney, of 1 Guildford Street, Luton. The veteran of the South African campaign rejoined the Colours at the outbreak of war and became attached to the Royal Engineers as instructor at No 8 Depot Company, Newark [Notts]. The 40-year-old died in the Red Cross Hospital at Newark from an acute internal problem, leaving a widow and three children. A carpenter by trade, he had worked in Luton for Mr E. Jaquest, Messrs Dunham and Messrs T. and E. Neville.

• Staff Quartermaster-Sgt W. Sharp, formerly of the Luton News staff, wrote to say he had learned he had been mentioned in the Dardanelles Despatches. He had learned the news via a report in the Glasgow Daily Herald shown to him by a Scottish comrade who was also mentioned.

• Among men notified as having been wounded was Pte E. Plummer, aged 27, of the Beds Regiment, on September 15th (bullet wound in the neck and shoulder). He lived at 31 Milton Road, Luton, and had worked for hat manufacturers Walter Webb and Baker, of George Street and John Street.

• The battlefield death toll continued to mount. Among the names mentioned in this edition were Sgt William Henry Bunyan (Beds Regiment), Rifleman Arthur David Sharp (King's Royal Rifles), Cpl Percy Bertram Stimson (London Regiment), Pte Percy George Lane (Beds Regiment),L-Cpl Bert Holdstock (London Regiment), Second Lieut Herbert George Merchant (Beds Regiment), Sgt Arthur Huckle (Beds Regiment), Second Lieut Richard Reeve Emmens (Essex Regiment), Driver Sidney John Indge (Royal Horse Artillery) and Pte Herbert Harold Howkins (Royal Fusiliers).

• On Wednesday last week a memorial service was held in St Thomas' Church, Stopsley, for Pte Sidney George Peters, Pte Arthur William Fensome and Pte Horace Fensome, whose deaths at the Front had been reported during the previous week. The church was crowded for a service conducted by the Vicar, the Rev G. H. C. Shorting.

• A tramcar mishap occurred in London Road on Tuesday evening, about 8.20, resulting in injuries to several passengers. After stopping at West Hill Road, the tram commenced to go backwards, and it seemed the driver could not pull it up. The passengers became alarmed and two of them jumped off before the driver pulled up outside the Children's Home. Tramway Manager Mr Wray said the driver would easily have pulled up the tram had a man who ran down the stairs not wedged him so that he could not apply the brake. "There is not the slightest possibility of a car getting out of control in this way, and I hope the public will understand that," he said.