Unmarried Couple Charged With Falsifying Registration Form

Morgan’s aeroplane works, Leighton Road, Linslade 1917 [Z50/72/195]

Thursday 22nd March 1917: Albert Worthington, a munition worker at Morgan’s in Linslade, has appeared at Court in Luton accused of failing to furnish required information to the keeper of a lodging house in Leighton Buzzard. He was charged along with a single woman, Elsie Cope, who did not appear in court. On February 28th they took lodgings at 32, Hockliffe Street, where the landlady, Mrs. Simmonds, presented them with the usual registration forms. The forms were completed, but with Miss Cope describing herself as “Mrs. Worthington”.

Mr. Worthington stated that he was a discharged soldier, who had been wounded by a gunshot in the chest which affected his heart. As he had filled his registration form correctly, he did not see that he could be charged with making a false statement. Miss Cope failed to appear but Mr. Worthington was prepared to answer on her behalf. The Chairman of the Bench pointed out that it was a serious offence, for which the maximum penalty was £200 or six months’ imprisonment with hard labour. However, in this case the “foolish act” to which Miss Cope had pleaded guilty led only to a fine of ten shillings and five shillings and sixpence costs for each defendant.

Source: Luton News, 22nd March 1917

National Registration at Bedford

Town Hall and entrance to St. Paul's Church, Bedford 1904 [Z1306/10/58/6]

Thursday 19th August 1915: The effort to collect NationalRegistration Forms continues. In Bedford fifty enumerators have been carrying out the task. Each enumerator has to enter in a book the name, address and gender of each person who has received a form, and the dates on which they were delivered and collected. No cases of attempted evasion have been reported so far, although a handful of individuals were determined to deliver their own forms directly to the Town Hall. A surprisingly large number of people were visiting Bedford just for the weekend. Many of these had to apply for forms locally as many officials elsewhere in the country refused to give them out to anyone who was expecting to be away from home. The registration office was kept open on Sunday afternoon for their benefit.

Once the forms have been received they are taken to the Town Hall where about a dozen volunteers are helping with the preliminary processing. The duties involved in compiling the Register include counting the forms for both men and women, checking the books, preparing summary and totals, transmitting the forms of non-residents to other areas, classifying primary occupations, making out certificates of registration, and recording secondary occupations. The final result will be separate registers for males and females in alphabetical order of occupations. Forms for men aged between 18 and 40 will be copied and sent to the O.C. Regimental Depot.

Source: Bedfordshire Times 20 August 1915

National Registration Forms

Tuesday 17th August 1915: Under the National Registration Act passed in July all men and women aged between 15 and 65 are required to register at their place of residence on 15th August. The registration is being carried out in a similar way to a census, but instead of the head of each household completing a single form each individual is responsible for their own registration. Men are required to fill in a blue form and women a white form. Enumerators are now being sent round to collect the completed forms, with those in Luton reporting that it is proving a more difficult task than they anticipated. Many of them now realise how difficult the work of a postman can be. One says: “I should not mind a street where the houses front on to the path, but I was given one of those aristocratic quarters where I had to open a gate, walk up what seemed endless steps and winding paths, knock the door, see the servant who answered, wait until the master had been communicated with, and then go down the steps and paths again, thinking how sweet it would be to have a heart to heart talk with the ingenious architect who designed such fiendish approaches to the houses.”

Source: Luton Times, 20 August 1915