7th Bedfords Want Socks

Sock pattern [Z160/60]

Tuesday 16th May 1916: 2nd Lieutenant G. H. A Hughes, the son of Reverend F. C. Hughes who served as minister of Wellington Street Baptist Church, Luton, until 1914, is home on leave from France, where he is serving with the 7th Bedfords. He has contacted the Luton News with this message:

“I am home on leave and return to ‘somewhere out there’ tomorrow … What I want to see you about is getting our fellows a supply of socks and “other comforts.” Of course you will know what “other comforts” are – cigarettes and that kind of thing. You see, when a chap goes into the trenches for some days he does not take off his boots, and that sort of thing, with fatigue duties thrown in, soon polishes off a pair of socks. Practically a fellow wants a fresh pair of socks every week, and I thought perhaps, if the Luton News would remind Bedfordshire that there is a 7th Beds Regiment, and recall to the kind residents of Luton that quite a number of Lutonians are enlisted in that regiment, the fellows might get what they so badly stand in need of. I am afraid the 7th Beds are, after all, very little known; or, at any rate, not remembered as they should be.”

Source: Luton News, 18th May 1916