Linslade Appeal Tribunal

Grand Cinema, Leighton Road, Linslade [Z1306/72]

Thursday 5th September 1918: Tribunals continue to be held on a regular basis to hear appeals against conscription to military service for men considered to be essential workers. At today’s Linslade Urban District Tribunal a number of exemptions were agreed. Joseph R. Labrum, age 40, a coal merchant at Ledburn Wharf, Linslade, received three months’ exemption with the consent of the Military Authorities on the grounds that he is in a certified occupation. The normal requirement to serve as a Volunteer was waived as he is a lieutenant in the Special Constables. William White, the licensee of the Bedford Arms, was exempted for six months on health grounds. He has been certified as not fit for any kind of service, even as a Volunteer.

There was some complaint that Linslade retailers had been taken by the Army whereas those in Leighton Buzzard had not, with the result that shoppers were being forced to go to Leighton. This time grocer Lewis Lovell of 55 Old Road was exempted for three months on the grounds that his work was of the utmost importance. Other men considered to be in essential occupations included a cattle dealer, a coppersmith carrying out skilled work for Morgan and Company, and the manager of the Grand Theatre. Although Mr. Dyball, aged 33 and single, only passed his medical as Grade 3 he could still have provided useful service to the Army as a clerk. However, he was carrying out the work of two men at the Theatre, and the importance of picture palaces for propaganda work was recognised by the tribunal.

Source: Leighton Buzzard Observe, 10th September 1918

Keeping Bedford Entertained

Empire Cinema, Midland Road, Bedford 1959/60 [BP65/67/3]

Saturday 11th May 1918: Over the past week Bedford residents have enjoyed a varied selection of entertainment at local cinemas and theatres. Since Monday the Empire has been showing ‘The Garden of Allah’, by Robert Hichens, which boasts that its “desert scenes, with their loneliness, great space, and sand storms, leave an ineffaceable impression”. At the Picturedrome ‘Mary Girl’, the “celebrated vaudeville theatre play” has been followed by George Walsh in ‘This is the Life’ and ‘Strictly Business’, number ten of the O. Henry stories. Viewers at the Palace in the High Street were offered a double bill on Monday, with Mary Miles Minter in ‘Charity Castle’ and a two reel Triangle-Keystone comedy, ‘A Hindu Hoodoo’; on Thursday there was a showing of ‘Quo Vadis’.

Source: Bedfordshire Times, 3rd May 1918

The Big Push – Battle of the Somme at the Empire

Friday 25^th August: The film ‘The Battle of the Somme’ will be shown at the Empire in Bedford on Monday, by special permission of the War Office. The film has already been shown in London and Bedford will be one of the first towns to see the film outside the capital. The film charts ‘the big push’, and promises to be a thrilling and heart-catching realisation of war:

“This film has not been produced for entertainment, but as a moving illustration of the events of the war for those who are removed from its grim and terrible realism. The government believe that the nation is strong enough to face the truth, and that when people know war as it is they will the more gratefully honour and reverence the men who have given their all that Britain may live.”

Part I of the film shows the preparatory action between 25^th and 30^th July, including the movement of the ‘Brave Bedfords’ on the eve of the attack. Part II shows the big day itself, with scenes of soldiers fixing wire cutters to their rifles in order to force their way through German barbed wire, a field battery in action and the memorable rush over the trenches in the face of devastating fire. Deeds of rescue are highlighted, one man bearing a comrade across his back as he crawls through a mass of barbed wire to safety. A hard fought British victory is celebrated, with footage of cheering Tommies and the burial of the German dead. The film lasts an hour and a quarter and the profits from the film will be sent to war charities.

Source: Bedfordshire Standard 25/08/1916

Interior of the Empire cinema, c.1920
Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service (ref: BTNegM8/52)