Stories from the Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph, March 6th, 1915.

Lady Wernher at Luton Hoo has intimated that she will equip 50 men of the Luton Volunteer Corps. The announcement was made by corps vice-chairman Mr Harry Inwards at a smoking concert given by the committee of the corps on Thursday evening in a Town Hall decorated with plants and the flags of the Allies.

It was hoped it would be the first of a series of enjoyable social gatherings. Instrumental selections were played by the Luton Amateur Orchestral Society with the Cosmo Glee Quartet (pictured right), comprising Messrs Clemmans, Fowell, Punter and Weedon, among other featured artistes.

Referring to the corps, Mr Inwards said there were many men at Commer Cars and at the Vauxhall works who had badges to show they were on Government work and exempted from military service. They ought to join the 150 men already in the corps who had started without the slightest previous military knowledge but had become proficient in a very short time. The corps offered an opportunity to drill and to make themselves efficient for any emergency.

New members were wanted now because the corps was in a position to drill them. There was no obligation on members to pay anything except the sixpence a week which everyone had to pay. But they would get a magnificent uniform which could be used as an ordinary suit on the disbanding of the corps, and the suit could not be bought under 50 shillings or £3

• Mothers were proving a stumbling block to military enlistment in the area, South Beds Recruitment Committee heard. Mr Murry Barford felt the duties of mothers in the present crisis ought to be emphasised, impressing upon them that they should not want their sons to fail in their duty. It was pointed out that the 5th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment had been trained to the fullest state of efficiency at Bury St Edmunds but was prevented from immediately going on foreign service because the second 5th was not up to strength. A further 100 men were required from the south of the county.

• Clergy and ministers of the town's churches were or be approached with a view to making March 14th a recruiting Sunday in Luton. They were to be invited to a meeting with the Recruitment Committee at the Town Hall next Wednesday.

• The Duke of Bedford's training depot at Ampthill Park came in for high praise in The Times when the newspaper's military correspondent paid a visit. The men there were keen, smart and solider-like and a credit to the county. And a cleaner and better managed camp the writer had never seen.

• The Telegraph took Luton Town Council and local clergymen to task over a lack of support for military events in the town, only about three councillors other than the Mayor and Deputy Mayor attending. That lack of support continued at the opening of the YMCA centre at the Plait Hall on Monday evening when only the Mayor and Town Clerk were present, and also only one local church minister. "Are we not getting very slack in many of these public movements in Luton?" asked the Telegraph.

• Excellent reports reach us of the work of the Women's Voluntary Aid Detachment at Wardown. The RAMC officers, we hear, are very appreciative in their praise. And Mrs Tabor, eldest daughter of Mr J. W. Green, writes again for gifts of soap, towels or cash for the Bedfordshires, with whom he husband is serving at the front.

• The Luton Red Cross Band, like many others, have been very considerably affected by the war. It meant the loss of a number of engagements in the late summer and autumn, while the Belle Vue competition and the great contest at Crystal Palace were scratched in September. Some of the players have enlisted, and many supporters who were in habit of dropping their coppers in the collecting box at football matches, for example, are also away wearing the khaki.

• Luton firemen responded to a fire which caused an estimated £10,000 worth of damage at a flour mill belonging to Mr Alfred Thorne at Eaton Bray in the early hours of Thursday morning. The building,which was practically new, was completely gutted and a great part of the huge stock of flour and other cereals was rendered useless.

• Complaints about the Luton post and telegraphic service were again a topic at a meeting of the Luton Chamber of Commerce on Friday. A letter from the Skefko Ball Bearing Co inquired if anything had been done to remedy the situation. Secretary Mr T. Keens said the troubled appeared to be a scarcity of labour and the impossibility of the Post Office doing its business properly in its inadequate Cheapside building.

• Three boys, two aged 13 and one 11, were ordered by Luton Borough Court to receive six strokes of the birch each for having stolen three pairs of puttees hanging outside the shop of Harry Parsons in Manchester Street. The boys who received the stolen puttees were sent to see the others birched.

• A goal in each half saw Luton Town lose 2-0 at home to Portsmouth in the Southern League encounter. Luton with 24 points were 16th in the 20-team table, 13 points behind leaders Watford.