News from the Villages

Image: Ampthill tunnels, c.1910 [Z50/1/150]

Sunday 1st November 1914

Barton

Vegetables, fruit and eggs sent for the Harvest Festival have been divided between the National Hospital (London) and the patients at Wrest Park. Mrs Frederick Timms has collected £6 12s 9d with which she has purchased material for making eighteen nightshirts, two dozen handkerchiefs, one dozen blankets, and some knitted cuffs. She has also raised sufficient funds to supply 2,000 cigarettes and 10 ounces of tobacco.[1] Five blankets have been given which will be sent for the Bedfordshire Regiment. The Reverend C Charlesworth gave a lecture on the war in the Manor School to a packed audience which raised £5 towards the Belgian Relief Fund.

Gravenhurst

Two pairs of field glasses have been bought with money donated by parishioners in response to an appeal by Field Marshall Earl Roberts. Fourteen thousand field glasses have been provided following the publication of pictures in the Daily Mail showing that German sentries had field glasses while British sentries did not.

Westoning

Some of the men away training have returned home on short leave. Mr Peppiatt, who was present at the taking of Antwerp has been back for a few days to see his wife and children. Herbert W F Higgs, the eldest son of Mr and Mrs William Higgs, has enlisted in the Naval Air Section and will be stationed at Sheerness. He had previously worked for Mr Grimmer at Ampthill, for the General Omnibus Company, and at the Motor Works, Luton.

Flitton and Greenfield

So far there has been no shortage of food, and it is hoped that parishioners realise how much they owe to the ceaseless vigilance of the Navy. Lantern views and war slides on Germany will be shown on November 4th and on Belgium on November 18th. Socks are being knitted for soldiers by the girls of Greenfield School, and £1 15s 0d has been collected in the parish for a Wool Fund.

Clophill

The Scouts have been withdrawn from guarding the Ampthill Tunnel and are mounting guard at the Waterworks every evening. This will be much more convenient, especially as the Authorities are supplying shelter and fire. The Council are to issue special War Badges to all scouts who do a certain amount of public duty during the war. “Nearly every one of our boys have already earned the Badge. Why not all? Buck up the few slackers.”

Silsoe

Captain Lumley Jones, of the 2nd Essex Regiment, has been made a Member of the Legion of Honour, one of the highest distinctions the French Government and War Office have to grant, reserved for those who have performed a conspicuous act of bravery.[2] It is not yet known what feat won Captain Jones this honour.  Only a few days earlier he had been mentioned in dispatches by Sir John French.

Source: Source: Monthly Magazine for the parishes of Barton-le-Cley, Clophill, Flitton and Greenfield, Gravenhurst, Silsoe, Westoning, November 1914 [P21/30/16]

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[1] A letter of thanks to Mrs Timms of Barton was printed in the Luton News of 5.11.1914.

[2] Captain Lumley Owen Williames Jones is commemorated on the Winchester College At War website. He died of pneumonia brought on by influenza in September 1918 and is commemorated on the Silsoe war memorial. His parents and sisters were living in Silsoe in 1914.