Luton was responding to the plight of Belgian refugees displaced as their homes became swallowed up and often destroyed by the German advance.

• "These are the times when you find out the folk who have hearts in the right place," said Luton Mayoress Mrs Primett in The Luton News of October 22nd, 1914. And more and more Lutonians were opening up their hearts and their homes to the refugees.

• Acting medical officer of health Dr Sworder offered a furnished house in Park Street West rent free;