Digest of stories from The Luton News: Thursday, November 1st, 1917.

The liability of perambulators and push cars to carry lights under the Lights on Vehicles Order was drawn attention to by Chief Constable Griffin at Luton Borough Sessions yesterday. He said it had been the custom not only in Luton but pretty well all over the country to ignore the order so far as it related to perambulators and push cars in which children were being wheeled about, because when people had a child in a perambulator they exercised very great care and there was very little danger.

Harry Richards, of Stanbridge, pleaded guilty to a breach of the Lights on Vehicles Order in Moor Street, Luton, at 6.55 pm on October 23rd. The Chief Constable said he had brought the case chiefly as a warning and a heavy penalty was not being pressed for.

The offence was in a respect of a pram, and with reference to prams and wheelbarrows it had been customary to ignore the order. In this particular case the man was wheeling apples in a pram, and there must be a stop to using prams as vehicles for merchandise. The rule was one lamp with a white light in front and a red light at the back at the right hand side.

"It is very desirable that the police should call attention to this sort of thing, because it is getting a very bad habit in the town," said Alderman H. O. Williams, Chairman of the Bench. He dismissed the case on payment of 9s 6d costs.

• In its editorial column, The Luton News said it was glad to see the people of Luton taking an interest in the housing question. The matter was one that had been too long left in the hands of interested parties, and it was a pity the workers had not been able to exercise some influence over the development of land and the construction of houses which they have to inhabit. "We all know what the procedure was before the war in any growing industrial town. No sooner did the necessity for more accommodation manifest itself than in stepped the speculator, up went the price of land, and then began to appear a succession of little brick boxes, as like as peas in a pod, the inhabitants of which were called upon to pay a maximum rent for a minimum of comfort."

• Considerable interest was manifested in the wedding at Waller Street Wesleyan Church on Tuesday morning of Miss Annie Eva Hudson, second daughter of Mr Joseph Hudson, of Messrs Bird & Hudson, plait merchants, Wellington Street and of 'Shirley,' Brook Street, and Lieut J. Wilfred John Staddon, eldest son of the Mayor and Mayoress (Alderman J. H. and Mrs Staddon). Lieut Staddon has seen considerable active service and a year ago was severely wounded, although it is probable he will shortly go to France again. Miss Hudson was formerly a teacher of drawing and painting at Moorlands School, Dunstable Road.

• The wedding took place at Stopsley on October 3rd of Miss E.L. Grant, daughter of dairyman Mr H. C. Grant, of Round Green, and Frederick Toyer, son of Mr George Toyer, of Butterfield Green.

• Pte J. W. Dolling, late of the 3rd Bedfordshire Regiment and whose home address is 34 Grange Road, Luton, is now in India. He saw active service in France and Belgium in the early part of the war and was invalided home to England slightly wounded. In 1916 he was transferred to another regiment and went to India, having now returned there after serving nearly six months in Mesopotamia.

• Millicent Young, daughter of Mrs Elsom, of Westbourne Road, Luton, who, as reported in our columns a fortnight ago was serving with the W.A.A.C. in an office of the Army Pay Corps in France, is home on sick leave, but returns next week. "I did not want to come home," she said.

• There were elements both of romance and pathos in the news received by Mrs Knight, daughter of Mrs Cannon, of 54 Cobden Street, Luton, of the death in France on October 19th of her husband, Sapper Reed Knight, of the Canadian Railway Troops. Sapper Knight married Lizzie Cannon after meeting her brother in Canada.

• The death is reported of Pte Gerald Bigmore, of Stopsley, who was killed in action on September 26th.

• Pte Harold Smallbones, who formerly worked for Messrs W. E. Wallace & Son, florists of East Bray, before joining the R.F.A. at Biscot, was recently killed in France. His widow living at 58 Dallow Road, Luton, received the news in a letter.

• To give her husband and her seven sons to the Army is the record of Mrs Hawkes, of 21 North Street, Luton, and we regret to state that she has sustained her first bereavement. Her son Pte Bertie Hawkes, aged 20, of the R.A.M.C., has died in France from the effects of gas poisoning.

• Mr and Mrs Rodell, of 3 Surrey Street, Luton, have received news that their son,Pte Ernest Rodell, of the Royal Sussex Regiment, has been killed in action. Although no official news has yet been received, a letter from his chum to his sister leaves no hope for the stricken parents.

• A letter received by Mrs Chalkley, of 40 Avondale Road, Luton, fom a chaplain states that her Husband, Pte Harry Chalkley, was reported missing since October 13th. [Pte Chalkley was later listed as presumed killed in action].

• The sympathy of Luton is extended to the Vicar of St Matthew's, the Rev H. Coate, who has received a telegram from the War Office stating that his eldest son, Capt William Henry Coate, has been killed in action in the Balkans.

• Mrs Fensome, of 21 Granville Road, received the painful news last Friday that her husband, Pte Sidney Charles Fensome (Lancashire Fusiliers), had been killed in action on October 9th. He leaves a widow and ten-months-old child.

• The parents of L-Cpl W. Humm, who reside at 159 Dallow Road, have received official intimation that he was wounded in the recent fighting operations in France when the London Regiment made such a glorious stand. The old Waller Street schoolboy and employee of the Diamond Foundry is now in the Southern General Hospital, Birmingham.

• Pte Harry Ashton, husband, of Mrs Ashton, of 33 Naseby Road, Luton, has undergone terrible experiences at the Front. He was wounded in the right shoulder and leg, blinded and buried. When he had been dug out he recovered his sight after eight hours but was suffering, in addition to his wounds, from shell shock. In this pitiable plight he was brought to the Royal Hospital, Reading, where he is now getting on as well as can be expected.

• Pte Sidney Ernest Pedder, 37182 R.A.M.C., the youngest son on Mr and Mrs Pedder, manufacturer, of 257 High Town Road, is being treated in the Mersey Park Hospital, Birkenhead, for trench fever and nervous debility. While a stretcher bearer at Messines Ridge on June 7th he had been wounded and buried in a shell burst.

• In one week the schoolchildren of Breachwood Green have picked up 90 bushels of fallen acorns in connection with the national appeal. One little mite aged five alone picked up half a bushel.

• The recently formed company of the Church Lads' Brigade Cadet at Biscot has not been officially enrolled, and on Sunday last, at a special service held in the Parish Church in the presence of a large congregation, the officers were presented by the Chaplain (the Rev S. H. Collins) with their commissions, and the lads duly sworn in and given their membership cards.

• The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children investigated 3,201 complaints of neglect and cruelty in England, Wales and Ireland during the month of September. In the South Beds branch 10 cases were dealt with, affecting 30 children.

• Acting Medical Officer of Health Dr William J. Cox shows in his annual report that the grim shadow of death which haunts the cradle of the infant has dwindled by over one half during the last 30 years. Last year the infantile death rate in Luton was 81 per thousand births, compared with 190 per thousand in 1888. Dr Cox gives the chief causes of infantile mortality as ignorance of mothers, bad housing and insanitary conditions, impure milk, poverty, employment of married women in industries, venereal diseases and alcoholism.

• There are, apparently, some people who wrongly interpret the meaning of "Free Library". Lately several thefts of books have taken place, and now there appears a notice in the entrance hall stating that the 'ABC' railway guide has been stolen. Railway guides are now difficult to obtain, and this sort of theft is not peculiar to Luton by any means, but there is this difference. At other places only pages have been pilfered; at Luton the culprit has purloined the complete publication.

• Commencing today (November 1st) the retail milk vendors of Luton have fixed the price of milk to the consumer at the extraordinary figure of 8d per quart. This is a disagreeable jump of 2d per quart on the prices ruling in October. and will prove very disconcerting news to harassed and anxious householders.

• Unless there is a decided improvement in support, the Luton Town FC Directors will have not option but to close down, as since the increased tax has been in operation the attendance has gone down to such a point that it is impossible to meet the actual out-of-pocket expenses of the matches.. If there was a prospect of meeting those expenses, the Directors are willing to keep the flag flying, as it will be a more difficult matter to make a start if the club dropped out altogether. If the club is still carrying on, there is always a chance of something turning up similar to two seasons ago when the London Combination came to the rescue.