Digest of stories from The Luton News: Thursday, December 7th, 1916.

Sunday was a red-letter day in the annals of the Salvation Army in Luton. It was the occasion of a visit by Mrs Booth, the wife of the head of the movement.

Mrs Booth conducted public meetings in the Temple, Park Street [pictured above], in the morning and evening, and the audiences were very large and enthusiastic. In the evening an overflow meeting had to be held at the Manchester Street hall. The bands of the two Luton corps led the hymns, and the local ministers read the lesson and offered prayer.

Mr George Warren presided. He remembered when the Salvation Army invaded Luton, and a visit paid by the late General [William Booth] to Luton for a crowded meeting in the theatre.

Mrs Booth spoke of the members of the Salvation Army who had stuck to their posts in Belgium and Sweden to relieve the distress among civilians and refugees, and of their work among German prisoners in England.

• About 100 parcels will go to the lads of the Parish Church this Christmas through the energetic co-operation of the ladies, with Mrs Chapman at their head. For some time the Ladies Working Party has been making warm underclothing, mufflers and mittens, and other friends have provided money and gifts of cigarettes and other things, so that each parcel will contain about ten articles, thus making a very acceptable "lucky bag". The Egyptian parcels have been despatched, and those for France are ready. I addition, three parcels for prisoners of war in Germany are being sent.

• Between June 27th and November 27th, Mr H. Maw, the Librarian of the Public Library, has been able to send 210 books and 340 magazines to the Camps Library for soldiers and sailors. The Libraries Committee of the Corporation have received many most appreciative letters from officers of minesweepers in respect of gifts and withdrawn books.

• Major Harold A. Wernher (pictured right), son of Lady Wernher of Luton Hoo, met with an accident while riding in the College Maiden Handicap Steeplechase at Windsor on Saturday on his horse Dordogne. He failed to recover after approaching the first fence in anything like convincing style and was thrown, sustaining a fractured leg. He was taken to the King Edward VII Hospital, where the limb was set. Out of 11 horses in the race, half a dozen fell, including the favourite, ironically named Good Example.

• Two Luton women were appealing for any news of a husband and a son reported missing on the Somme battlefield in October. Cpl Herbert Henry Strange was the husband of Mrs Elizabeth Strange, of 7 Dunstable Place, and Pte John William Martin was the son of Mrs Alice Martin, of 25 Queen Street. [Both would eventually be confirmed to have been killed in action - click on links.]

• Yesterday at the Borough Court, Ernest J. Clark, of 33 Jubilee Street, was summoned for smoking inside a tramcar on November 10th and also for refusing to pay his fare. The defendant said he was only carrying a lighted cigarette but did not smoke it on the tram from Round Green to the Town Hall. He also claimed a friend had offered to pay for his ticket but conductress Margaret Ewington refused it. She said his friend had offered to pay after he got off, and two soldiers corroborated her evidence. Mr Ellis, prosecuting for the tramway company, said it was intended to prosecute in all future cases to protect women from men who thought they could take advantage. Clark was fined a total of 30 shillings.

• The funeral of Bandmaster Mr John Thomas Ogden, who died suddenly in the yard at 35 New Bedford Road, took place yesterday afternoon at the Luton Church Cemetery. Floral tributes included one from the Luton Red Cross Band, of which he was bandmaster for several years.

• The Bishop of St Albans officiated at a confirmation service at the Parish Church yesterday afternoon, when there were 166 candidates from the churches of the town and district.

• Names added to the Luton Roll of Honour included: Sapper Clarence Sidney How (Royal Engineers), Pte Fred Allen Kilby (Beds Regiment), Pte Robert Charles Morsley (Honourable Artillery Company) and Boy 1st Class Arthur George Swain (Royal Navy).

• Pte S. C. Mailing, the 18-year-old son of Mr and Mrs J. Mailing, of 24 St Saviour's Crescent, Luton, had been seriously wounded in action. On November 24th he was admitted into Stoke-on-Trent War Hospital, where he is reported to be going on satisfactorily. Prior to enlisting at the outbreak of hostilities he worked at the Diamond Foundry.

• Pte H. G. Preece, who before the war was secretary to one of the Luton junior football clubs, is now an inmate of the Roseneath V.A.D. Hospital, Broadstairs, having had a piece of shrapnel an inch long removed from his foot during an operation.

• The marriage was solemnised at Holy Trinity Church, Liverpool, on November 15th, of Quartermaster-Sgt Frederick William Lawrence, 1st King's Dragoon Guards, and Miss Evelyn Alice Whittaker. QMS Lawrence, third son of Mr and Mrs A. E. Lawrence, of 166 High Town Road, Luton, was allowed ten days special leave for his wedding to his Liverpuddlean bride.

• Greatly depleted staff in men's boater factories in Luton and St Albans offers plenty of opportunity for the employment of all kinds of female labour, according to the local correspondent of the Hatters Gazette. But there was some compensation in that business was good and prices not so cut as in previous years.

• Second Lieut E. N. R. Oates, R.A. Special Reserve, brother of Mr Reginald F. Oates, proprietor of the business of Reginald Milton, Luton, has been awarded the Military Cross for conspicuous bravery in action.

• Lieut-Col Edgar W. Brighten, the popular commanding officer of the 1/5th Bedfordshire Regiment, has received his third mention in the despatches of General Sir Archibald Murray, Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force. The despatch covered an attack east of the Suez Canal in which 4,000 Turkish prisoners were captured, including 50 officers, with an estimated 9,000 casualties out of force of 18,000. Heavy guns, machine guns, rifles, large quantities of ammunition, miscellaneous stores, two field hospitals with equipment plus hundreds of horses, mules and camels were taken even after the enemy had burned large quantities of stores.

• The first memorial service for the fallen from Biscot, Leagrave and Limbury was held on Sunday afternoon at Biscot Parish Church. A special form of service had been drawn up, and on the front page was a print of the proposed lych gate to be erected as a parish war memorial.

• We regret to learn from inquiries made this morning that the Chief Constable (Mr David Teale) is still confined to his bed suffering from "a touch of pleurisy".