Digest of stories from the Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph: July 28th, 1917.

Digest of stories from The Luton News: Thursday, July 26th, 1917.

What seemed to be a fascinating 200-year-old prophecy of war was reproduced in The Luton News on September 6th, 1917, via a Danish newspaper. The prophecy was on a parchment written by a monk in 1701 and found when a wall of the Monastery of the Holy Ghost on the Swedish island of Gotland was demolished.

Pte Arthur Crease was only 23 years of age but a veteran with nearly 10 years Army service. He enlisted at the age of 14, was discharged for being under age, re-enlisted and even served in the French Army. He had seven gold wounded stripes - and ended up in Luton Police Court on Tuesday, July 24th, 1917, for being an absentee from the Lincolnshire Regiment stationed at Grimsby.

• Pre-war picture of owner J. W. Green outside his Park Street West brewery.

In the wake of restricted opening hours and other restrictions on pubs and the concerns in some quarters that drink was a bigger enemy than Germany, the Bedfordshire Brewers' Association passed the following resolutions in July 1917 against the possibility of nationalisation their industry.

An entertaining letter has been received by Mr E. J. Hawkes, the Luton and District Police Court Missionary, from Sapper Ernest James Simpkins, of Mangrove, who was in the service of Mr Hawkes prior to joining the East Anglian Royal Engineers two year ago. Now in Egypt, he writes:

Digest of stories from the Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph: July 21st, 1917.

Pte R. H. Eastaff, R.A.M.C., who is doing hospital work in connection with the Mesopotamian Expedition Force, has sent letters to his mother at Collinwood, Reginald Street, Luton, describing conditions he was facing. In one he referred to a plantation close to the hospital.

With the second anniversary of Gallipoli looming and its large toll of Luton casualties, the unmistakable indications that the 1/5th Bedfordshire Regiment had been in action again came with a casualty list that included the name of Commanding Officer Lieut-Col Edgar Brighten among those slightly wounded.

Digest of stories from The Luton News: Thursday, July 19th, 1917.

Favoured with a typical July day and the excellent organisation of the Sports Committee, under the direction of Capt R. F. J. Colsell (Hon Secretary), Major Scammell DSO (President) and Capt C. Lane (Vice President), accompanied by the spontaneous support of other officers and men of all ranks, the mounted events in connection with the regimental sports were held in the Riding School at Biscot on Saturday afternoon (July 14th, 1917).

A story of bigamy and a body in the Thames dressed in another man's clothing was told at Luton Police Court on Saturday, July 14th, 1917, when a Luton wife sought a maintenance order against her husband on the grounds of desertion.

Mr H. W. Lathom, for complainant Mrs Emma A. Radcliffe, said it was a most unusual case arising from the desertion of husband John Joseph Radcliffe 11 years previously. Radcliffe at that time was a painter and decorator in Luton, and for the first few weeks after leaving he sent her a pound a week. Then that money stopped.

Digest of stories from the Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph: July 14th, 1917.

Digest of stories from The Luton News: Thursday, July 12th, 1917.

Digest of stories from the Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph: July 7th, 1917.

Anxious townspeople besieged the Luton News/Saturday Telegraph offices at the corner of Manchester Street and Alma Street for detailed news of the biggest air raid to date on London earlier in the morning.