Digest of stories from The Luton News: Thursday, May 24th, 1917.

When the bells were summoning to worship on Sunday morning, the Luton strikers decided to resume work. It is a lamentable thing that there should have been a breach, but we are not particularly anxious to apportion blame or responsibility.

It may be said, however, that all things considered, the Ministry of Munitions have not won any kudos over their share in the business, and Mr Lloyd George himself took the matter in hand and, before going into the pros and cons of the dispute, found a basis on which the men could resume work.

The news first reached Luton in a special wire to the Saturday Telegraph on Saturday night on the stroke of 6pm. It was less than an hour after the decision was announced from the Prime Minister's resident, 10 Downing Street, and the good news came to us from the Central News.

Until Saturday morning there seemed no prospect of settlement, the daily report to the strikers from the London Conference leaving the men as determined as on the day they came out, and then the bad news on Friday night that seven strike leaders had been arrested in the provinces was not such as to inspire hope.

In Luton, the unanimous vote for a return to work was obeyed, and no firm had cause to complain against the men in this respect. It has been a very different Luton this week compared with last, when one could not walk a dozen steps without meeting a group of strikers.

• Shortly after 4 pm today an alarming accident occurred at the works of Messrs C. and S. C. Dickinson, High Town Road. The supports of the second floor had apparently rotted and suddenly without warning the flooring gave way at one end and fell over machines in the ground room where girls were working. It was fortunate that no girls were on that side at the time, although one was badly bruised and was taken home. The other girls, although much alarmed, behaved with commendable control, and one girl very promptly stopped the machinery. The damaged flooring was cut away and by 8 pm the machines were again at work. The flooring will be thoroughly rebuilt.

• About a thousand gallons of milk from Derbyshire were affected by the heavy thunderstorms during the night on Sunday and Monday. The milk, which stood at the Midland Station, was quite unfit for sale and, we understand, it had to be returned.

• The Treasurer of the Bute Hospital has received £100, a legacy from the estate of the late Mr Robert E. Dearbergh, who lost his life in the sinking of the Titanic.

• On Thursday evening an interesting presentation took place in the reading room of the Beech Hill Unionist Club when Councillor C. W. Escott, on behalf of some 80 Beech Hill allotment holders, presented to Mr E. A. Noakes, of Mansfield Road, a handsome silver tea and coffee set in recognition of his services in connection with the scheme for transforming an area of about eight acres of hitherto waste land off Mansfield Road, Lincoln Road and Selbourne Road into allotment gardens for the cultivation of vegetables.

• News has just been received by Mrs A. Weddocks, of the White Horse Inn, Tea Green, that her brother, Edgar Sylvester, as been made a Chief Petty Officer. He has been for some time on a Royal Navy destroyer.

• The following men were among those reported to have given their lives on the battlefield: Pte William Hankin (West Riding Regiment), 64 Ivy Road, Luton; Pte Harry Taylor (Beds Regiment), 5 Pondwicks Road, Luton; Pte Ernest Arthur Smith (Middlesex Regiment), 6 St Paul's Road, Luton; Pte Walter Ernest Boskett (Beds Regiment), 99 Ashton Road, Luton; Pte George Pratt (Beds Regiment), 74 Lea Road, Luton; Pte William Horsler (Middlesex Regiment), Warden View, Limbury; Driver Frederick Albert Matthews (Machine Gun Corps), Tipple Hill, Woodside. Also: Ordinary Seaman William Harold Burrows (Royal Navy), 4 Naseby Road, Luton; Pte James Green (Middlesex Regiment), nephew of Mrs Hill, of 144 North Street, Luton; Cpl Reginald Shergold (Australian Army Medical Corps), son of the Rev Frank Shergold, former pastor of Mount Tabor Primitive Methodist Church, Luton; L-Cpl John Thomas Longden (York and Lancaster Regiment), mother living at 6 Church Street, Luton.

• Pte Ernest King (31496, Beds Regiment) , whose wife was living at 4 William Street, Luton, was reported missing, possible taken prisoner. Later records show he was a prisoner of war, captured while suffering from shrapnel wounds near Arras on April 27th, 1917. Pte King is pictured, right.

• The home of Mr and Mrs George E. Burrows, of 4 Naseby Road, Luton, was plunged into mourning by he news that their son, Ordinary Seaman William Harold Burrows, had been drowned in an accident while serving on HMS Dido in the North Sea.

• Mr and Mrs Harry Page, of 16 Hartley Road, Luton, have been notified by the War Office that their son, Pte Sidney Page, is suffering from a severe gunshot wound in the left shoulder and is in hospital at Wimereux. He is 20 years old and enlisted in the Northants Regiment in April 1916 after being employed by James Martin and Sons, bleachers and dyers, Hitchin Road, Luton.

• Pte E. J. Clarke, Royal West Surreys, of 92 Wenlock Street, Luton, was severely wounded in France on May 1st. Official news from the War Office said he was dangerously ill from wounds but making satisfactory progress. Before enlisting he was employed by Vauxhall Motors.

• Mrs Simpson, of 85 Frederic Street, Luton, has received a letter from her husband, Pte Ernest A. Simpson, in hospital at Huddersfield to say he has been wounded. Enlisting in the Royal West Kent Regiment in July 1916, he went to the Front the following October. He was previously employed by hat manufacturer Mr A. E. Claridge, 18 Cardigan Street.

• Pte H. Lawson, of the Norfolk Regiment, whose home address is Chaul End, was wounded in Egypt by gunshot in the left leg on April 19th. He joined up in May 1915 and landed in Egypt on April 29th, 1916. Before the war he was employed by Messrs Danby's nurseries, Leagrave.