Volunteers off to camp

Digest of stories from the Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph: June 29th, 1918.

“Goodbye-ee! Goodbye-ee! Wipe a tear, people dear, from your eye-ee!” So sand the light-hearted members of Luton's Special Service Volunteer Company as they swung up Park Street shortly after 8 o'clock this morning, one their way to the Great Northern Station, where they entrained for what must vaguely be described as a war station on the East Coast.

The 2nd Battalion Beds Volunteer Regiment has contributed the whole of the quota asked of it by the Army Council a record equalled by a very minute percentage of Volunteer Battalions throughout the country. Four officers and 107 NCOs and men was the Battalion's response to the call made. A few others who had intimated willingness to undertake the special service had in the meantime reported for duty with the Regular Forces.

There was quite a gathering of the public at the Park Street headquarters, and a large body of officers and men lined up to see their comrades off. At the station the men were greeted by the Mayor (Councillor Charles Dillingham) and the Town Clerk (Mr William Smith). The entraining was carried out with dispatch and the Luton men were all aboard before the Dunstable men arrived.

  • Miss Hilda M. Sworder, youngest sister of Dr Sworder, is home on leave from France. She was first at Wardown Hospital, but subsequently went to France about 2½ years ago to assist in the British Red Cross work. Miss Sworder hopes to return soon to her labour of love among the wounded and their nurses, working with a detachment of the French Red Cross and organising the work of a nurses' club in the Marne district.

  • The epidemic of influenza is beginning to make headway in Dunstable, and the Rev R. F. Gascoyne is among the latest victims. School attendances are already giving indications of decline, though so far not to a serious extent. Remarkable suddenness of attack is in some cases reported.

  • Whilst fixing a chemical drum at Messrs Laporte's works on Thursday, Thomas Fensome, a man living at 5 Ebenezer Street, crushed the forefinger on his left hand. A compound fracture resulted. He was attended to at a surgery and then went to the Bute Hospital, where he remains.

  • The total amount collected locally last Saturday in connection with Alexandra Rose Day was £242, of which £123 has been paid to Groom's Cripplage for the cost of the roses. The organisers say they are able to give the sum of 50 guineas to both the Luton Children's Home and Wardown Hospital.

  • Today were published in various centres in the town the preliminary list of voters, and those who believe they are entitled to be on the roll will do well to examine the list so that if their names are missing they can make their claims. The work which has devolved upon Mr George Underwood and his clerk during the past three months has been enormous and especially trying has been the verifying of no fewer than 5,000 soldiers' names. The Luton list has been printed under contract for HM Stationery Office at the Luton News Printing Works and comprises some 22,000 names.