These photographs reproduced by courtesy of the Bedfordshire Standard were taken at the first presentation of Mons Stars to men at present serving at the depot of the Bedfordshire Regiment who formed part of the first British Expeditionary Force to France and were with the Bedfords in the memorable retreat from Mons.
No previous figures of Whitsuntide passengers have approached those of this year. The bookings were abnormally high.
Queues 100 to 200 yards long were waiting for every train, but the special facilities which the companies had arranged enabled them to cope with the crowds of travellers in a surprisingly speedy manner.
Whilst exercising horses this morning at the Luton Remount Depot, Pte Harold Clarkson (Royal Field Artillery), aged 19, of Preston, Lancs, was seized with an attack of faintness and expired before medical assistance could reach him.
The brief account in the Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph (June 7th, 1919) was followed by a report of the following Tuesday's inquest in The Luton News (June 12th). That revealed that the young soldier, who had no experience of horses until he joined the Army 12 months previously, died during a horse stampede at the Beech Hill Remount Depot.
It is not improbable that if a serious attempt was made to establish a museum at Wardown it would succeed far better than the present method of placing gifts of birds, beasts and insects in a part of the Public Library which is seldom visited, suggested the Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph in its editorial column on June 7th, 1919.
Once upon a time, before we had time to burn bricks and raise them in unsightly rows, a little spring bored a hole in the hills beyond Luton and then began to run as quickly as it could towards mother sea. It has been running ever since, for when a little thing like that starts you cannot stop it.
It laughed and sang, played skittishly round the long legs of heron, or proudly bore on its gentle ripples the little water fowl, the wild goose and the wild duck.
The programme of peace celebrations for the Borough of Luton was submitted by the committee responsible at Tuesday's meeting of the Town Council, and approved subject to the reservation of one or two matters for further consideration, reported The Luton News (June 5th, 1919).
There are no signs of unrest among the members of the Luton Police Force, although it is understood that there are matters on which the constables are unanimous that improvements might be made.
A serious complaint was made on Monday evening (June 2nd, 1919) at a meeting of the Luton War Pensions Committee by Mr W. J. Mair, Chairman of the Disablement Sub-Committee, that discharged disabled men, trained for the straw trade, were being exploited by one or two employers.
Two interesting and forcible letters were written to his parents this month by a Lutonian, serving in the East as a despatch rider with the Royal Engineers. In the first letter, written from Tanta in Egypt, he says:
“Wish I could say that I should soon be coming home, but things are not at all promising yet. The Egyptian question has simmered down, and demobilisation on a reduced scale resumed. If we wait for the arrival of reinforcements before we are released we look like waiting a long time.
Under the headings: “Luton's Peace Day; the cry of the children, where do we come in?” the Luton News (May 29th, 1919) said it may be something of an exaggeration to suggest that the children of Luton are themselves actually asking this question in relation to the forthcoming peace celebrations, but there are many among the residents of the borough who are beginning to ask it on the kiddies' behalf.
Yesterday morning, the Officer Commanding at Biscot Camp presented the Distinguished Conduct Medal to Pte M. R. Stott, G/30785, 10th Battalion Royal West Surrey Regiment, whose home is at 85 Ashton Road, Luton.
The first fatal boating accident in the history of Wardown Lake occurred last evening shortly before nine o'clock, when a young man name Edmund Victor Baden Chamberlain, who resided with his parents at the corner of Leagrave Road and Spencer Road, fell out of a canoe and was drowned.
A very interesting presentation took place last night at the Wesleyan Central Mission, Midland Road, when L-Cpl Stanley Edmund Watson (South Staffordshires) was presented with the Military Medal awarded for bravery on the field. He was gazetted on October 21st, 1918.
It was no small matter that Mr Watson had preferred to be decorated at his church rather than at a picture palace. He was in the infantry, but served with the artillery in Italy.