• Their Majesties the King and Queen and her Royal Highness Princess Mary honoured Lady Wernher by visiting Luton Hoo on Sunday afternoon and inspecting her hospital for wounded officers, going through the wards and speaking to each of the patients. The Royal visitors arrived at three o'clock, remaining to tea with Lady Wernher, and left for London shortly after 6pm. [Picture of Luton Hoo published in 1914].

Digest of stories from The Luton News: Thursday, July 18th, 1918.

It is not for us in this report to enter any detailed debate as to whether the result of the Tank's visit has been a success or failure, save that we may point out from the comparative standpoint, even while failing to meet the very high standard aimed at by the most optimistic, it is more than a qualified success.

Luton has handed over to the Chancellor of the Exchequer a sum of nearly £463,000, raised in five-and-a-half days. The precise amount is £462,688.

From noon on July 8 to 8pm on July 13 the Tank was open for about 64 hours, and when Egbert left his base at 8.05pm on Saturday he had been responsible for drawing in money at the rate of £7,284 per hour. The taking on the individual days were: Monday £164,805, Tuesday £37,234, Wednesday £27,709, Thursday £37,104, Friday £73,648, Saturday £123,000.

Day by day the people of the town and for many miles around came to pay the homage of admiration, and the climax was reached on Saturday when the town and the countryside assembled to wish Egbert farewell and Godspeed on his errand. Every avenue of approach, every yard of the paves from the Corn Exchange, Market Hill, Church Street, Guildford Street and But Street were crowded, the people being wedged closely, and Egbert made a triumphal progress to the G.N.R. Station on his way to Grimsby.

• L-Cpl Frederick Batchelor (Beds Regiment), whose home is at 44 Langley Road, Luton, was taken prisoner on April 19, 1916, but is now a step nearer his home, having been transferred, after a period of internment in Germany, to Holland. He was formerly an under-gardener at The Hyde.

• A few days ago Government surveyors came down to Luton and visited certain establishments. They took measurements and prepared reports of the accommodation on such buildings, the surroundings and so on. There are many rumours concerning the purpose of the visit, but the visitors themselves did not seem disposed to give any information. But whatever the purpose for which the premises were thus inspected, there is a good deal of criticism of the undesirability of interfering with large factories in the staple industry or even recreational institutions, as would appear to be in contemplation. The staple industry is just now at a most critical stage.

• There was a good attendance at the George Hotel on Monday evening, when Mr E. Douglas Stratford, on behalf of the executors of the late Mr Alfred Blundell, and the trustees of the will of the late Mrs Eliza Fickling, offered for sale various lots at Limbury, including the well-known Limbury Manor. Mr Stratford explained that he had quite a nominal reserve figure for the Manor. Bidding commenced at £650 and rose in sums to £775. At that figure there was a stoppage, and Mr Stratford then put in a bid of £1,000 for the vendors, and the property was withdrawn for private negotiation.

• The Luton Town Football and Athletic Co Ltd has just published the balance sheet for the year ended April 30, 1918. The gross gate receipts were £424 19s 2d, but £60 19s had to be paid out in respect of shares to visiting clubs, and only £34 15s 1d was received from this source. Then the entertainment tax must be deducted, so that the net receipts only total £292 9s 9d. To this must be added £21 for advertisement receipts and hire of ground, so that the total revenue only came to £313 9s 9d. On the expenditure side £291 0s 5d was swallowed in wages, national insurance stamps and travelling expenses, and £23 8s 6d in training and output, so those accounts exceeded the revenue. Then comes £176 for rent, £72-odd for rates and secretarial expenses, £51 income tax and other items, making an expenditure of £644 18s, and leaving a loss of £331 8s 3d on the year. The liabilities came to £3,940 3s 1d, and the assets £106 10s 7d, so there is an adverse balance of £3,833 12s 6d.

• The funeral took place at the General Cemetery on Monday of Mrs Mabel Jane Millard, wife of Driver F. G. Millard (Field Ambulance – attached A.S.C.), late of Cardiff Grove, Luton. Death occurred, following influenza, at the Bute Hospital the previous Tuesday, at the age of 31. The soldier husband was granted special leave from France in order to be present at the funeral.

• Yesterday morning, about ten o'clock, William Walters, a labourer of 21 Buxton Road, was working at the Electricity Station when a piece of machinery slipped and fell on his right wrist, cutting through the tendons. He was taken to the Bute Hospital and is being attended there.

• All four sons of the Deputy Mayor (Alderman J. H. Staddon) are now numbered among the fighting men. The last to join is the third son, Mr Donald Staddon, who went to America some five years ago, and is engaged in New York. He had previously been rejected and had set up in business when called to the Colours. He has since been sent down for home service, to Alabama.

• The beneficial rains of Sunday were perhaps not so much appreciated by local railwaymen , for it was their annual “day”. Processionists twice paraded the streets of Luton and energetically rattled collecting boxes for the benefit of the National Union of Railwaymen's Widows and Orphans Fund and the Luton Bute Hospital. The procession assembled at the East Ward Recreation Ground at 1.30 and marched by way of Park Street, Park Road West [Strathmore Avenue], Albert Road, Hibbert Street, Wellington Street, Stuart Street, Dunstable Road, Collingdon Street, Manchester Street, George Street and Chapel Street to the Wesleyan Chapel, where a service was conducted by the Rev J. A. Clapperton. The evening procession left West Ward Recreation Ground, Dallow Road, headed by the Bedford Midland Military Band, proceeded through Dallow Road, Clifton Road, Maple Road, Ash Road, Dunstable Road, Leagrave Road,Spencer Road, Biscot Road, Cromwell Road, Old Bedford Road, Frederic Street, William Street, North Street, Cobden Street, Hitchin Road, Melson Street, Waller Street, Park Square, Market Hill George Street, Manchester Street and New Bedfor Road to the Moor, where an open-air meeting was held. The total proceeds of the day were about £86.

• “In England today there are a large number of slums. I have been in them many times, and I know what I am talking about. Many of them are such that a good farmer would not dream of keeping his cattle in such conditions. Yet we leave men, women and children to swelter in them” - Archdeacon of St Albans.

• CORRESPONDENCE: Sir – On Tuesday evening I happened to be sitting on a seat in Wardown Avenue, when a small boy of about of about ten years of age fell into the lake. Immediately one of the Austrians now living in the town dashed across the grass and into the water without a moment's hesitation, and rescued the boy. Such an act, I think, is worthy of public recognition, especially as he is an alien. It evidently proved that there is no enmity in his heart against us (as a nation) – Yours etc, A Looker-On.