Having scored two goals that helped Luton beat Watford 3-1 in a return London Combination home match on Easter Monday [April 24th, 1916] centre-forward Ernie Simms fell foul of the law after the final whistle.

His new, young wife Grace was among the 6,000-plus spectators at the match but she had to leave without him after he was arrested as an absentee from the Royal Field Artillery stationed at Newcastle.

At an occasional sitting of the Borough Police Court the following morning Simms (pictured right) admitted being an absentee from the 1st Battery of the Royal Field Artillery.

Police Sgt Hunt said that at 5.30pm on Easter Monday afternoon he was on duty at the football match on the Town ground, and saw Simms playing. He had seen Simms about the town a good deal, sometimes in plain clothes and sometimes in uniform.

The sergeant asked Simms for a pass, and he produced a pass for a London regiment, but afterwards admitted it was not a proper one. The officer later found that Simms had been an absentee from the RFA at Newcastle since November 6th, 1915.

Simms said he had returned since then, and when asked by Clerk Mr William Austin what he had been up to all that time, he replied that he had been absent for about a fortnight.

Chairman of the Bench Mr George Warren remanded Simms to await an escort, and awarded P Sgt Hunt 10 shillings.

"I was in court when he was charged on Tuesday morning and was glad to see he made a clean breast of it," wrote the reporter who had also covered the Easter Monday game.

[Ernest Simms was one of eight Luton players to be among the first group to join the Footballers' Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment in December 1914.]

[The Luton News: Thursday, April 27th, 1916]