Stories from The Luton News: Thursday, January 20th, 1916.

The increased efficiency of the Bute Hospital and the high place it now holds in the opinion and esteem of all sections of the townspeople was the cause of gratification at the quarterly meeting of the Committee of Management held at the hospital on Monday evening.

Secretary Mr H. O. Williams reported that during the quarter ended December 31st, 1915, 154 patients were admitted to the hospital, making a total of 573 for the year (341 male and 232 female - 104 of whom were children under the age of three). Twenty-seven patients had been left in the wards from the previous year, making 600 cases under treatment during the period. Of those, 33 died, three chose to leave, three were removed to other institutions, six were unsuitable for treatment, and 522 were discharged as cured or relieved.

In 1914 there had been a total of 760 cases, the decrease in 1915 largely due to the fact that only 101 members of the Forces were treated, compared with 256 in 1914.

The average cost per week per bed was 20s 2d, 1s 6d a week higher than the previous year due to increases prices of provisions. Income for the hospital has increased appreciably, but donations fro the building fund had reached only £18 4s during the year, leaving £729 10s 6d still due.

The one disappointment was that it had been found impossible, due to demand from military hospitals, to procure X-ray apparatus for which £300 had been provisionally earmarked.

• What might have been a disastrous fire was smartly stopped by the Luton Fire Brigade, but not before considerable damage was caused. The fire occurred in the premises occupied by Parr's Bank in George Street [between King Street and George Street West], and was discovered on Saturday night by the manager of Messrs Whitlock's ladies outfitting shop next door. The blaze was started by a defective flue attached to the furnace in the basement of the bank. Firemen managed to save all the papers and books and more valuable fittings of the bank, which despite the other damage was open for business as usual on Monday morning, pending more extensive repairs.

• Rifleman Albert E. Kendall [pictured right], 9998, 3rd King's Royal Rifles, is a Streatley man who has just been awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal after he and two comrades captured a trench held by 13 Germans while serving on the Western Front. His father lives in a lonely cottage in the middle of fields off the Sundon-Streatley Road. Albert had a brother, Pte Percy Kendall (2/5th Bedfords), and a step-brother, Pte Fred Woodward (2nd Bedfords), also serving on the Western Front.

• Chief Constable David Teale's 22nd annual report to Luton Town Council on Tuesday evening revealed that while the number of indictable offences had fallen in Luton in 1915, juvenile crime had shown a "regrettable" increase. The 79 boys and three girls aged under 16 brought before the courts represented a total of 60 more than in 1914. Cases of petty larceny were up 34 on the year, and Chief Constable Teale said this was "no doubt owing to lack of parental control of children during school holidays".

• Yesterday morning, Farrier George Smith, of the 136th Company, Army Service Corps, was shoeing a mule at Biscot Huts when it kicked out savagely. The hoof caught him just on the right ear and almost severed it. After first aid was rendered, he was taken to the Bute Hospital, where he is progressing favourably, but the wound is a bad and dangerous one.

• Yesterday afternoon the first "open day" at Tennyson Road Infants School proved a very happy and successful event. There was abundant evidence of the splendid results achieved in the tuition of the little ones by Miss Tomlin (head mistress) and the Misses Wall and Holmes. An exhibition of work by the tiny scholars was arranged round the rooms, and the things to be seen were truly astonishing.

• Yesterday morning, about 9 o'clock, an alarming outbreak of fire occurred on the premises of Messrs Fricker's Metal Co, Langley Street. While the men were working there the rook suddenly burst into flames. The fire brigade used a hydrant on the premises to put out the fire, which had got a hold of the woodwork of the roof. About 40 ft of the roof was burned and some of the contents of the foundry suffered from water and the fire. A spark from a chimney is thought to have come in contact with the woodwork.

• We have received from the Canadian Headquarters Office of the 152nd Overseas Battalion, Weyburn, Saskatchewan. a note to the effect that F. Mitchell, of 70 Ash Road, Luton, is now Pte F. Mitchell, 627018, 152nd (Southern Saskatchewan) Overseas Battalion.

• A time-expired Territorial who had brought from the battlefield a relic in the form of a shell which he believed to be harmless was among four males killed as he attempted to investigate the inside of the shell with a hacksaw at the Britannia Iron Works, Kempston Road, Bedford, on Tuesday afternoon. Ex-Territorial John Wildman, of Marlborough Road plus Donald Francis, George Trueman and Arthur G. Pennington, all from Bedford, were killed by the ensuing explosion. A fifth person, Herbert Papworth, also from Bedford, was injured.