An Unfortunate Motorcar Accident

Wrest House (South Front), c.1914 [Z1130/104/1/20]

14th September 1914, Wrest Park: About sixty convalescents recovering from injuries they sustained during the Battle of Mons have already arrived at  Lord Lucas’s house at Wrest Park, which has been converted into a hospital for soldiers. Some of the Red Cross nurses who have been sent to Wrest were involved in an unfortunate accident yesterday evening. They were given permission to take one of Lord Lucas’s cars for a spin and took a corner badly near the village of Haynes. The car overturned, leaving the driver with a broken arm and the passengers with injured heads. A motor omnibus taking a group of soldiers from Bedford to Shefford stopped at the scene to help and the injured nurses were taken to Shefford. They were well enough to return to Wrest but the car was badly damaged.

Source: Luton News 18/9/1914

A Prisoner of War Returns

13th September 1914, Luton: A Luton man, Walter Horace Jeffs, has returned home after being held as a prisoner of war in Germany. He had visited Lucerne in Switzerland with some friends at the end of July. When the war broke out his friends stayed in Lucerne but he decided to make a dash for it. On 8th August a message was received by his family that Jeffs was a prisoner at Baden and they later received a postcard from him saying he was “alive, well and in good spirits”, but as it was written in German they suspected it may not have been written entirely by Jeffs himself. He arrived back in Luton last week, saying he had been struck in the eye by an officer and roughly handled when he was arrested but had not suffered any further violence. He had been hungry however, being forced to travel by train for seventeen and a half hours without food and being given only one meal a day. When his health began to fail he was given a pass to leave for Holland. The friends he left in Lucerne, fearing that they would be stuck there for six months, were evacuated on a government boat and reached home at the beginning of September.

Source: Luton News 10/9/1914 and 24/9/1914

How To Cook a German Sausage

Highland Engineers preparing dinner, from The Highland Division at Bedford: An Illustrated Souvenir, 3rd edition, published by Beds Times Publishing Co.Ltd. 1915 [X414/162]

12th September 1914, Bedford: This little rhyme is causing amusement locally:

How to Cook a German Sausage

Cook on a British Kitchener,
Use a Japan enamelled saucepan,
Greece well with Russian tallow,
Flavour with a little Jellicoe,
Servia up (help!) with little
French capers and Brussells Scouts.

Source: Beds Times 11/9/1914

Volunteers at Sharnbrook

Sharnbrook Council School, now John Gibbard Lower School.
© Bedfordshire and Luton Archive Service 2013

11th September 1914, Sharnbrook: A meeting was held at Sharnbrook school on Wednesday to provide information about the Soldiers and Sailors Families Association. As a result a committee has been set up to help local families who are in difficulties because of the war. 

Ten young men from the village have enlisted in the services this week. A roll of honour with the names of all volunteers from the village is to be put up in the Church porch.

Source: St Peter’s Sharnbrook Parish Record, P112/28/6, p.55.

The Best of Times

Image: Felixtowe letter card 1917 [ZU41/3/6]

10th September 1914: A letter from a Luton man

Landguard, Suffolk.
   Dear Friends, - We are writing to tell you that your country needs you. We are having the best of times down here at Felixstowe.
   We are preparing for our country, and if we fail to win, what will you say? But it will be too late then, so come along and do your best for your King and country.
   Remember that years ago the men of Luton and other towns did the same for us. Why should we not respond now?
   Don’t be down-hearted, as the more the merrier, and we are sure to win if you all try your best.
   Come along. There are hundreds down here, but still room for more.
                 LUTONIAN

Source: Luton News 10/9/1914

Round the Camp Fire

Training camp at Ampthill Park [Z1306/1/34/3]

9th September 1914, Luton: Anyone walking up the Old Bedford Road last night would have seen and heard the soldiers enjoying a camp out as part of their training – at least, they certainly appeared to be enjoying themselves by the number of sing-songs going on around camp fires. They also seemed to have made themselves quite comfortable. Each man was given a great coat, a waterproof sheet and a blanket. By forming themselves into groups of four they could make a little tent out of two of the sheets, put the others on the ground with two blankets, and share the remaining blankets one between two. The soldiers all said they were warm enough for a good night's sleep, especially as many of them wore woollen sleeping bonnets.

Source: Luton News 10/9/1914

When is a German not a German? When he is a Scot

Novelty postcard with pull-out section containing 12 local views, 1915 [Z1130/36/1]

8th September 1914, Dunstable: An odd case was heard at the Dunstable Borough Sessions today. A labourer from Dunstable, Rowland Mowse, had been arrested for using indecent language in the High Street. It appears he had accused another man of being a German spy, swore at him, attempted to trip him, and then used filthy language in the presence of the policeman to whom he denounced the so-called “spy” - who it turned out was actually a Scotsman. The Mayor was furious to hear that the defendant was drunk at the time given that Mowse had recently written to him complaining that his wife and children were in want of food. As the Mayor pointed out, if this was the case Mowse should not have been spending money on drink. They will now be in even worse case, as Mowse was fined £1 with 13 shillings costs, or must serve twenty one days in gaol.

Source: Luton News 10/9/1914