Diary: Women employed on the trams

 

Stories from The Luton News: Thursday, September 16th, 1915.

Tram conductress

In addition to its postwomen, Luton has now its lady tram conductors. About a week ago it was found necessary, owing to the shortage of men, to introduce female labour on the tramways system.

Mr A. Wray and Mr H. B. White had recourse to female help in running the trams, and an advertisement was inserted in the Luton News and its allied papers, with the result that there were 30 applications, chiefly from Luton girls. Some six or seven have been appointed and have been at work for a short time on the cars. They include Miss L. Giddings (pictured above).

They are doing the work very satisfactorily, and when their uniforms are finished, about a week hence, they will look smart. The uniform is a blue Norfolk jacket, and a skirt and peaked cap.

  • Few mothers have drunk more deeply of the cup of sorrow that Mrs Tuffnell, of 15 York Street. Her husband, an old soldier, died many years ago, leaving her with a young family, two of whom now lost in the war. There cane be little doubt that her fourth son, Pte Harry Tuffnell, is now lying with many others beneath what is left of Hill 60, and now fifth son, Pte Benjamin Tuffnell, was killed on the battlefield at Gallipoli on August 15th.

  • A Gallipoli casualty list compiled from private sources also included Pte A. Blaydon, The Knapps, Toddington Road, Leagrave, among those killed; Pte G. H. Brown, of Luton, among the missing; and L-Cpl H. Dumpleton, 26 Burr Street, as missing believed killed. Twenty-five men were reported wounded.

  • A couple of Luton lads, Leslie Seamark, eldest son of Mr and Mrs H. Seamark,of New Bedford Road, and Charlie Bailey, son of Mr Bailey, tobacconist, went up to London on Saturday and enlisted in the Rifle Brigade. They are now in khaki at Winchester.

  • Petty Officer Mechanic Claude Alwyn Bartlett, F2082, one of Mr E. W. Bartlett's sons, is officially reported wounded.

  • The most prominent feature of the local hat trade during the present autumn is the demand for ladies' hats other than those made of straw. Felts, velours and velveteens are in the running, and straw hats are a negligible quantity. The brilliant sunshine of the early part of September created a demand for white felts, which presumably are the appropriate complement to the white costumes that are so fashionable.

  • As the manager of New Town Street School find themselves unable to carry into effect certain alterations required by the Board of Education, the Board have given consent to the reorganisation of this school for the present as a single department for girls and infants from October 1st, 1915. Miss Weller was appointed head teacher.

  • The harvest festival at Chapel Street Wesleyan Church has been combined with the welcome to the three new ministers in the circuit - the Revs J. A. Clapperton, F. Bertram Clogg and Archibald Lander. At the afternoon service the children contributed 400 eggs that were later distributed to local and neighbouring military hospitals and to poor people.

  • Mr Ben Hartop, of Stopsley, withdrew the case against two Round Green boys for damaging growing wheat provided, he said, he could make a protest against the damage to which he had been subject for some years caused by children playing hide-and-seek in the wheat.

  • Shortly after midday on Friday a cyclist collided with Frederick Alfred Kilby, 40, residing at 14 Milton Road, Luton, and employed as a labourer by Messrs David, Clements and Co., hat manufacturers, Frederic Street. He was leaving a confectioner's shop in Stuart Street and rushed across the road as the cyclist approached. Both fell to the ground. Although Dr Ferrier was on the spot, Kilby declined to receive medical assistance, and walked home with a little help. He went to bed and gradually grew worse, relapsing into unconsciousness and passing away on Sunday night. A post-mortem examination revealed a fractured skull. An inquest jury returned a verdict of accidental death.

  • An inquest was opened in Hitchin on Monday on the body of William Gatward, aged 44, dealer, of Bury Road, Stopsley, who was found dead in a shed at the rear of the George public house in Bucklersbury, Hitchin, on Saturday morning after leaving home the previous day to attend a horse fair. Medical evidence suggested that Mr Gatward had been taken ill and lost consciousness and, lying on his face, suffocated himself. The jury found that he had accidentally suffocated himself.

  • ADVERT: Luton Parish Church (interior), 23 by 17 inches, photographed, printed and published by T. G. Hobbs, 28 Cheapside, Luton, free to subscribers prepaying for Hobbs' Luton Timetable (1s) until September 1916. This and a much larger photograph on show at Hobbs' until Monday.