News of More Casualties

Beaudesert Boys’ Council School 1913 [Z50/72/21]

Thursday 28th November 1918: Tragically the end of the War has not meant the end of bad news for the families of soldiers. News of two men killed in the very last days of the fighting has now reached Leighton Buzzard, along with confirmation of the death of a third, and a report that a fourth man has died from the effects of influenza. Private Leslie Johnson, the nephew of Mr. Thomas Munday of Bridge Street, was killed on November 4th. He had worked in the Income Tax Office, London, but took up farming owing to ill health and for a short time was employed in the local area. He joined up at the age of just 17. His brother, Charles Rowland Johnson, the son-in-law of Mr. Henry Chapman Furlong, was killed in October 1917.[1]

Private Tom Hyde of the Middlesex Regiment was killed in action on 7th November, just four days before the signing of the Armistice. The chaplain of his battalion has written to his wife telling her that her husband was killed instantaneously by a shell and suffered no pain. Private Hyde was the son of Mr. and Mrs William Hyde of East Street, where his wife and child now live at number 28. Before joining up he worked for Mr. W. G. Willis, builder. A year ago he was wounded in the knee, and as the joint remained stiff he was sent to Ireland on garrison duty. During the last “push” he was again sent out to France. He was 27 years of age, and a member of the Leighton Buzzard Excelsior Band.

Private R. Miles of the 8th Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry, formerly a Trooper in the 17th Lancers and the Bedfordshire Yeomanry, the son of Richard and Annie Miles - now of Leighton Buzzard but previously of Wicken in Northamptonshire - had been reported wounded and missing. He has now been officially reported killed. His elder brother was seriously wounded on the Somme.[2]

Sapper Samuel Walter Stevens of 12, Plantation Road, was serving with the Royal Engineers when he was admitted to a casualty clearing station in France on 8th November. He died on the 13th from pneumonia following influenza. Sapper Stevens was an old boy of Beaudesert School and worked for Messrs. Adams and Whiting as a bricklayer before joining the Army in 1915. After nine months’ service in France he was operated on for appendicitis; he returned to France after recovering from the surgery. He was 28 years old and leaves a wife and young daughter.

Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 26th November 1918

[1] Charles Rowland Johnson of the 1st Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment died on 17th October 1917, aged 32. His wife, Jessie Frances Johnson, was living at 14 High Street, Leighton Buzzard. His brother is listed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as Martin Leslie Johnson, aged 19. In 1911 Charles Rowland Johnson was living at 18 Bridge Street, Leighton Buzzard, with his uncle Thomas Henry Munday and working for him as a jeweller’s assistant.

[2] Apparently Reginald Miles of the 8th Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry, whose death on 15th October 1917 is recorded on the Tyne Cot Memorial.

Bedford Soldier Killed by a Train

Bedford County Hospital 1910 [Z1130/10/36/2]

Thursday 6th April 1916: An inquest has been held at the Bedford County Hospital into the death of Trooper Percy James Griffiths of the Bedfordshire Yeomanry, a married man aged 21. Major Pares told the inquest that Trooper Griffiths had joined the Yeomanry last September but only a few days later was kicked by a horse and was reported sick. From then onwards he never actually came on duty, and was sick more or less until he was discharged from hospital on 29th March. The effects of the injury had only lasted a short time, but he suffered from other health problems. On March 29 he appeared all right and looked fairly well. He was reported fit for duty but did not come on duty the next morning as he ought to have done. The Major did not think Trooper Griffiths cared for military work, and he suffered from hysteria.

On the morning of Friday 31st March Corporal A. F. Carnell was sent to find Trooper Griffiths and found him in bed at his home at 42 Greenhill Street. Griffiths said he was too ill to attend and asked for a doctor to be sent. He was told he was reported fit for duty and advised to get up. The Sergeant Major had asked Griffiths why he did not attend at the miniature range the day before as instructed; he claimed that he had been and found no one there, but this was contradicted by the Sergeant Major. On the Friday Griffiths again failed to turn up for parade and Corporal Carnell was sent to fetch him. He saw the man’s mother-in-law, who said Griffiths had told her he had to report himself to the doctor. He had appeared quite rational.

Another witness, Frank Gosling, told the inquest that he had been cycling from Wootton Pillinge to Bedford on Monday evening at about 9 p.m. As he passed under Cow Bridge he heard someone call for help from the railway bank. He got off his bicycle and called for some soldiers, who went to a nearby cottage to see if it had a telephone. Mr. Gosling found Trooper Griffiths at the bottom of the bank, with both his legs cut off by a train. The soldiers had managed to telephone the hospital, and he contacted both the signal box and the station master. Griffiths was taken to the hospital, where he died at about one o’clock the next morning.

Griffiths’ mother-in-law, Ellen Chambers of Biggleswade, said she was nursing Griffiths’ wife. She had last seen him on Friday morning; he had complained of his head and looked “wild in his eyes”. He had also complained about his head on Thursday night. He worried about his wife and children, but was a very steady man who never took too much drink. Griffiths’ mother said that she had three other sons in the Army who were all doing well. Percy was trying to do his bit, but could not manage it. When he was two years old he had a severe illness, and it was then considered that he had brain trouble. He worked as a warehouseman and his manager had told her that her son suffered from loss of memory.

The jury returned a verdict that Trooper Griffiths had committed suicide, but that there was insufficient evidence to show his state of mind at the time.

Source: Bedfordshire Standard 7th April 1916

Luton Soldier Finds His Dead Brother

Trooper Reggie Looker 

Sunday 6th February 1916: The parents of Trooper Charles William Reginald “Reggie” Looker of the 1st Beds Yeomanry received the sad news of his death in a letter from their youngest son Trooper Richard “Dick” Looker who was serving with the same Regiment. The brothers had joined up soon after the beginning of the war and had been sent to France together in April last year. Dick wrote that he saw a comrade run out of a gap and realised there was something wrong. He called out to ask what had happened but received no answer so went to investigate. He found his brother lying dead, shot through the head. Reggie Looker, who was 22 years old, was educated at Bishop Stortford College, then undertook a farming course at the Beds County Council Institute at Ridgmont. For two or three years before the war he had worked at different farms to gain practical experience.

Major Selby Lowndes of the Beds Yeomanry and Sergeant Jack Andrews of No.3 Troop have written letters of sympathy to Trooper Looker’s parents. Major Lowndes wrote: “His death, thank God, was instantaneous, as we have discovered, and there was no suffering of any kind. His brother was with him immediately he was shot, and, poor fellow, he feels it dreadfully. We were all so fond and proud of him, as we are of the one who is left. He was universally popular, and a splendid soldier. I know your anxiety, as I have a boy of 19 in the same brigade as myself, and one of 17 in the Black Watch.”  The Sergeant adds: “He was a great favourite with every one of us, and was looked upon as a certainty for promotion at an early date. His death is a great blow to all of us, and he will be sorely missed by the whole squadron … Doubtless Dick has written you full particulars, and how he was buried in the Cemetery at --- by his comrades and friends, surrounded by the roar of guns, etc., and I could not help but think, whilst placing a blanket round him, how peaceful and quiet he looked to the storm of shot, etc., raging outside. He died as he lived, a soldier in every sense of that word.”[1]

Source: Luton News, 10th February 1916

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[1] The grave of Reggie Looker is at Vermelles British Cemetery. His brother Dick survived the War.

A Disturbance in Dunstable

Poster issued following the Dunstable Riot [SJV11]

Tuesday 11th August 1914 (Dunstable): Food prices are still a source of discontent and there have been accusations that some grocers are profiteering and charging more than they should. Suspicion that prices are being put up unnecessarily led to a disturbance in Dunstable last night.

A crowd of over a thousand people gathered in High Street North. To start with they were quite good humoured, singing patriotic songs. Then the mood turned angry. A brick was thrown through the plate glass window of Mr Mowse’s grocer’s shop and was followed with a shower of stones.[1] All the windows in the front of the shop and house were broken. The police lost control and there were threats to loot the shop. Major S J Green, the commander of C Squadron of the Beds Yeomanry drove up in his motor car and spoke to the angry crowd. The Major was greeted with cheers, but after he left the mood turned nasty again and more stones were thrown before the mob finally broke up and went home at around one o’clock.

Another crowd gathered early in the morning, this time to see off Major Green’s Bedfordshire Yeomanry Squadron from the LNW railway station. His men had mobilised in Dunstable on Thursday and had been billeted in Messrs. White’s mineral water factory since. While the Yeomanry were at Dunstable many young men applied to join them, but they were turned away because the Squadron was already at its full war strength.

Sources: Luton News, 13th August 1914 and 29th October 1914; correspondence file SJV11

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[1] A police report on the incident dated 7 November 1914 explains the grievance against the shopkeeper, Ernest Mowse of 81 High Street North:

There was a strong feeling amongst the people against Mr Mowse, on account of him having raised the prices of his goods, and it having been reported that he said he could do without the trade of the poorer classes. Mr Mowse also did a little wholesale trade with some smaller shop-keepers, and it was stated that he had been round and got them to raise their prices also. The feeling of the people were entirely against Mr Mowse only.

A claim was made for payment under the Riot Damages Act of 1888 by the Luton Mutual Plate Glass Insurance Association Ltd which had paid for repairs, but this was refused on the grounds that the Riot Act had not been read and the incident could therefore not be classified as a riot.