[From The Luton News: Thursday, July 31st, 1919]

In his opening statement which took about an hour [at the Borough Court on July 30th], the Town Clerk [Mr William Smith] said that on the day appointed for the official celebration of peace Luton desired to show its appreciation of the blessings of peace, and made ample arrangement for the enjoyment, at a reasonable expense, of all classes of the community, and especially the poor and the children.

In order to give as much enjoyment as possible to the largest number of people, arrangements were made many months in advance for a procession from Luton Hoo to Wardown, where numerous entertainments were provided. A large number of ladies and gentlemen, anxious to show their appreciation of the benefits of peace, provided decorated cars, adorned the children, and did all they could to contribute to the pleasure of the multitude for one day.

The procession arrived at the Town Hall at about 2.10pm. Previously there had been some unpleasantness in regard to discharged sailors and soldiers, and throughout the country they had decided to take no part in official celebrations. That was a matter for themselves, and everyone had a right to please himself provided he did not break the law and do damage to others.

Notwithstanding that decision, the Comrades of the Great War later changed their opinions, included their band in the procession,, and almost at the head of the procession was a body of discharged soldiers who were Comrades of the Great War. That showed conclusively that an organisation which claimed to represent discharged soldiers had no grievance with the local authority or the public in regard to the local arrangements.

On the morning of that day, the Mayor, as Chief Magistrate, received from the Lord Lieutenant of the County a proclamation which he was desired to read in connection with any ceremonies that were taking place. It was considered the most appropriate time would be when that part of the procession arrived which included the men who had fought for their country. He thought the Bench would agree this was the appropriate time, and that if read at any other time the proclamation would not have been of much value.

The proclamation was read, and the Mayor expressed his great satisfaction and gratification that the Comrades, by entering the procession, had shown they were good members of the community, prepared to sink any differences that might exist, and so help to make the demonstration representative of all the town's war and peace organisations.

That was not quite sufficient. There was in the procession an official car emblematic of peace, and provided by a number of ladies and gentlemen at a considerable expense, which was to be defrayed by the Council. To make the occasion more memorable to the people surrounding that part of the procession, it was considered desirable that the proclamation should be read again.

He mentioned those facts because the proclamation was a document issued by the King to his loyal subjects. The procession was not delayed more than a few minutes and then went on to Wardown.

 

CLOSED AND BOLTED

The Mayor, who was supported by many members of the Council, then returned to the Town Hall. Wives and children were in the upper part of the building. There was a considerable amount of booing and noise, but this was not uncommon where a large concourse of people were assembled. Nothing took place for 20 minutes or a little longer, and, as there was nothing more to do, members of the Council prepared to go to Wardown to help others enjoy themselves. The front door, which was of considerable height and thickness, was closed and bolted.

Very shortly afterwards that door was rushed by some men and women, soldiers in uniform and people not in uniform, and they rushed into the Assembly Room on the first floor. That did not disturb him in the slightest degree, for he would have regarded it merely as hooliganism for the moment.

When they got upstairs they terrified the women who were there, threw the chairs from the windows, breaking the windows in the process, and were also going to throw the forms out into the street. They smashed some tables and destroyed some catering utensils owned by a caterer who had provided the refreshments at a dance the night before, and one of the men, John Stanley Long, whom he would describe as one of the ringleaders, threatened to throw the Town Hall Manager from the window if he interfered. Not content with that, they rushed into the other rooms, and the position became so serious that one lady was brought downstairs nearly in a state of collapse, and she was in his personal care for at least two hours. She was afraid to leave the building to go home.

In addition to throwing the chairs out, the people pulled down the decorations, flags and electric light fittings, and broke the windows of the lower rooms, including his own. This, said the Town Clerk, gave a great deal of pleasure to the multitude outside. One man thought it a good occasion to climb the tramway pole and pull down the flags.

Shortly after that mounted police returned from Wardown, and were able to drive the people back gently and quietly from the Town Hall steps. Order for the time being was comparatively restored, although there was the usual amount of nonsensical behaviour going on, and the door was again closed.

 

NO WORD ABOUT WARDOWN

A number of men then began to make wild and inflammatory speeches. They were about such special subjects as pensions, the entertainment of the inmates at the Workhouse, unemployment, grievances against the Tribunal, and not a word was said about the use of Wardown Park for a memorial service, so it would not be difficult to arrive at the conclusion that this latter subject had nothing whatever to do with the proceedings on Saturday.

Then there was a demand for the Mayor and Town Clerk to go out and address the people. “The matter was duly considered,” said the Town Clerk, “and I am going to take the responsibility here in public, as I never shrink from doing. I advised the Mayor there was no necessity whatever for him to go out and attempt to address with any success the multitude of people such as is indicated by the photograph which I now have before me, which in case of necessity I will prove, and shows the crowd extended not only immediately in front of the Town Hall, but as far as the Corn Exchange.

“I do not think I should be exaggerating if I said the crowd at that moment was something like 10,000. At any rate, I will be moderate and put it at 5,000. What chance was there for any man to be heard, with a crowd that had behaved like this crowd for at least half an hour?

“I will ask,” said the Town Clerk (pictured right), “is this the class of people that is entitled to ask that the Chief Magistrate of the Borough, and its chief legal advisor [himself, the Town Clerk] should go out an address them? Are they the people who are likely to be convinced individually or collectively? And what subject did they want us to address them on? They have the pleasure this morning, if it is a pleasure. I am addressing them through you, and I hope they will find it a very satisfactory way of hearing me address them.”

Matters quietened down for a while, continued the Town Clerk, and then a message was received that if the Mayor did not come out and speak, a crowd would go to his house. That was a distinct threat. The Mayor did not go out, and they did go to his house, in a very considerable procession. They were accompanied by the police, and fortunately nothing was done. Matters went on more or less quietly, although those in the Town Hall were like people in a beleaguered city.

At 6.30 he had the pleasure of a visit from the President of the Discharged Sailors and Soldiers Federation, and also from a magistrate who had great influence with those who were pleased to call themselves Labour. They very kindly agreed to address the crowd from the steps of the Town Hall and, each from their own standpoint, advised the people to go away to Wardown and take advantage of whatever was there provided. The crowd remained, however, and, while not orderly, was not very disorderly until 10.10pm.

There was not the slightest doubt, said the Town Clerk, that a large part of the disorder and riot was produced by men whose senses had been interfered with by intoxicating liquor. It was a remarkable thing that everything remained more or less quiet, compared with what took place afterwards, until the public houses closed. Until about 10 o'clock several members of the Council remained on the [Town Hall] premises, and things being fairly quiet it was thought advisable they should retire. The only persons left were the Chief Constable and himself [Town Clerk] and Mr Thomas Keens, who brought food to him during the evening.

 

BOMBARDMENT AND FIRE

At 10.30 bricks and other articles came through the windows, and windows were being smashed all round the building. A food minutes afterwards a fire was started in the Food Office in Manchester Street. Two men employed by the Corporation – the Town Hall keeper and Mr Plummer – very courageously, and in spite of constant throwing of missiles, put the fire out. The fire was renewed and extinguished again and again for half an hour, and then the fire got too big, and the Brigade were sent for.

The Brigade were debarred by the crowd from putting the fire out. The hose was cut, the firemen were attacked, and the effect of the missiles thrown by the “peaceful crowd” could be gathered from the state of the firemen's helmets.

Holding up one these helmets, the Town Clerk said no small missile could have damaged it to such an extent. A very serious blow was necessary, and other helmets were in the same condition. The fire engine had to be taken away, and brought back later to Upper George Street. The crowd still prevented them working, and tried to take possession of the hose, and the Brigade were rendered practically incapable of doing anything to extinguish the fire until the crowd was dispersed by the military.

“Here I am going to say, without mincing matters at all, that I cannot understand a man who is employed to educate boys in a secondary school in a town like Luton being one of the persons who after that threw pieces of plate glass at the firemen and prevented them from performing their duties. You can understand one of these people, sodden by drink, with grievances of all kinds for reasons which will become apparent later, and which I am not at liberty to mention – you can understand their resorting to any method of violence which occurred to their minds for the time being. But can you imagine a man like Mr Ovenell, a master at the Modern School, taking part in the most disgraceful episode that ever occurred in the borough of Luton?

“I am going to say, further, that it is not only a disgrace to him, but that a man who attempts to interfere by throwing missiles, especially lumps of plate glass, at the firemen, has not only disgraced himself, but is a most unmitigated coward, and is not fit under any circumstances whatever to have anything to do with the education of the young.”

 

THE FIRST BATON CHARGE

Matters got so bad, continued the Town Clerk, that there was no other course but to attempt to disperse the crowd. At 10.30 the Chief Constable ordered a baton charge, and the police succeeded in driving he crowd back. But several of the police were injured, some severely, by crowbars, piping, bricks and large stones; and that those who attacked the police belonged to the lowest class of the community was proved by the fact that they resorted to an action which only cowards resort to – an attempt to injure men in the lower part of the body.

After midnight, owing to the number of men who were injured, it was necessary to retire from the Town Hall and go to the police station. Previous to that, unsuccessful attempts had been made to get help from other places, and there was no possibility of refraining any longer from demanding the services of the military.

At 3 o'clock a small force was secured. This was subsequently considerably swelled, and the people were driven away.

It was the most lamentable event Luton had ever experienced. There was absolutely no ground whatever for any such event. Even if people had a legitimate grievance they were not entitled to convert themselves into an unlawful assembly, then into a riotous crowd, then to injure men who were endeavouring to perform their duty, especially the firemen.

He could understand men of this stamp desiring to have a smack at their old enemies, the police, but he could not find any reason for preventing firemen from performing their duty and preventing unnecessary destruction.

 

'BOLSHEVISM AND ANARCHY'

“Having regard to all the circumstances,” said the Town Clerk, “I am going to ask the Bench to send every man and every woman for trial, and let them experience the weight of the law, and learn for once in their lifetime that there is a superior power to a crowd assembled in the street, which is animated, as the evidence will prove, not by local grievances but by Bolshevism and anarchy and rebellion of a very serious type.”

After referring to the constitutional methods available to get grievances redressed, the Town Clerk said that if every person with a grievance was to do exactly as he pleased civilisation would go to the wall, and it would be impossible to live.

That was not the end of it. On the Sunday night, at 9 o'clock, a crowd assembled in Dunstable Place, outside the police station, and some of them had the impertinence to ask the Chief Constable whether he had a sailor in custody. They demanded the sailor's release, and when told there was no sailor in custody they were not satisfied, but wanted to inspect the cells. “Can you,” asked the Town Clerk, “imagine anything more ludicrous?”

They were warned to go away, and, because they did not, found to their surprise that instead of only a few injured policemen, there was a large body of hale, hearty men armed with batons. They charged the crowd and drove them away.

That in itself would prove there was necessity for bring in the military, although he was pleased to say no shot was fired, because the greatest restraint was exercised, as it was not desired to have bloodshed over a matter of this description.

“We were a little more considerate than the wild, mad crowd outside. There was a slight further disturbance on Monday night, but that is not a matter of very great importance.”

 

THE CASUALTY LIST

Giving he official casualty list for the rioting, the Town Clerk said that the Borough Force consisted of 60 men, of whom only 51 were available on Saturday. Four of these were at Wardown, and of the 47 at the Town Hall 43 were injured, some of them badly. It was obvious, therefore, that they could not continue to repress the crowd, and at one time when the crowd was very unruly and dangerous, there were only three police in the entrance to the Town Hall. If the general commanding the other side had only known the weakness of the defence, much more damage might have been done.

Of the special constables 10 were injured, and also two constables from other forces. Of the Fire Brigade, 15 members were injured, and injuries were also sustained by 14 civilians who helped the police. That was a total of 84 injured, apart from those injuries sustained by the rioters.

 

UNEMPLOYMENT PROLONGED

The result was the total destruction of the Town Hall. The Town Clerk said he did not suppose anyone would regret that the building had gone. On many occasions he had heard desires strongly expressed that something would happen to it and so help the town to acquire another, but he did not think that desire was as strong today as it was on the 19th.

All the public records had gone, and nearly every deed had been burned or shrivelled. Every safe had been broken up by the heat. Plans of very great importance, including those recently prepared for house for the working classes, had been destroyed, and the progress of the housing scheme would be delayed some months in consequence.

Another document of very great importance was the recently prepared plans for a new sewer, which would have cost £50,000, and, like the housing scheme, have created a great deal of employment for a large number of people in the borough. The whole of that work was gone, that work would also have to be postponed, and unemployment would have to continue until the Council were again in a position to proceed.

 

NO ROLL OF HONOUR NOW

Another matter which occasioned him great regret was in connection with the Roll of Honour of all the men in Luton who served in the Army, Navy or Air Force in any capacity. that had been prepared at great personal trouble and very great expense and, although the record was not complete, it included between 8,000 and 9,000 names. That had absolutely gone and could never be replaced, as the information on which a large number of the entries was based had also been destroyed by fire, and that record would now never be made.

Those discharged sailors and soldiers who were not before the court had to thank themselves for depriving the town and future generations of what could have been an almost complete record of those who served the country in its hour of need.

In addition to this there was a considerable quantity of meat stored at the Town Hall for the use mainly of the labouring population in case of necessity. The meat had not been there very long, and the greater part of it had been destroyed, and perhaps would never be replaced, as there was difficulty now in getting material into the town.

“So far as the Town Hall was concerned,” said the Town Clerk, “we had a clock, which was erected there in commemoration of the peace of 1856. The Town Hall and the clock were destroyed in commemoration of the Peace in the year 1919.”

 

DAMAGE TO PRIVATE PROPERTY

In addition to destroying the Town Hall, said the Town Clerk, the rioters attacked Messrs Dillingham & Sons' premises, broke some plate glass windows, and took some goods out. They attacked Messrs Farmer & Co's premises, brought pianos out and played them in the street, and at the top of Bute Street had a wild orgy for some hours. They broke into Mr Clark's shop and looted it, and some of the people in court who were found in possession of stolen property would make the excuse that it was given to them.

One person was so lucky in her gifts that she not only received something stolen from Mr Clark's shop, but also something from Mr Caspers' shop, which was some distance away in another street, and separated at that time by a dense crowd.

The rioters looted a shop in Manchester Street, and the shop of a defenceless man who, although he was a German, had been resident in the town for a long term of years, and had striven throughout the whole war to keep himself in the quietest possible manner and do no harm to anybody. They attacked the shop, broke his window and stole some of his goods.

 

BOLSHEVISM, ANARCHY AND CRIMINALITY

After referring to a newspaper statement that the total damage amounted to £250,000 as one which was ridiculously exaggerated, the Town Clerk said the Bench would find the outbreak was nothing more than an outbreak of Bolshevism, anarchy, drunkenness and criminality.

Pointing out that the law regarded such conduct at night as being more serious than in the day, the Town Clerk proceeded to point out the sentence to which offenders were liable, and the punishment which would await those who tried to cause a repetition of the riot.

“It may be some satisfaction to the defendants,” he said, “to know that crime of this description merits and receives almost the most severe punishment the law inflicts with the exception of the death penalty. I mention that because I think it is my duty to let people know what the consequences will be if any repetition or attempt to repeat the operation of this particular night is made.

“For such actions as the demolition of buildings the extreme penalty is penal servitude for life, and that is a nice prospect for anybody to have in front of him.

“I cannot conclude without stating in the most public way my sense of the bravery, personal courage, coolness and the intrepid manner in which our most capable Chief Constable dealt with the whole of the proceedings from the beginning to the end. In that he was aided by his own men, by special constables drawn from all classes of the community, by the firemen, by such quiet and peaceable people as the manager of the public buildings, the Town Hall keeper and others. And it is due very largely to the Chief Constable that there was no aggravation of the circumstances on the part of the police. They did all they could to obtain quiet without resorting to any troublesome methods until it was impossible to go on any longer, and force had to be exerted to repel force.

 

THE RUNAWAYS

“There are some runaways. I believe a good many men have disappeared from their work. It may be some consolation to them to know that it is rather difficult at the present time for a man to hide himself very completely, because it is necessary for him to obtain food, and it is difficult to obtain food unless you have the requisite documents.

“Probably the numbers before you today will in a very short period be swelled by some more.

 

MILITARY STILL AVAILABLE

“If there is any thought in the minds of any persons that they intend to repeat these operations, there is a force of the military immediately and instantly available, properly armed, with the requisite ammunition, and on the next occasion we shall not have the slightest hesitation in applying that force. The results, as far as individuals are concerned, will be much more serious than they were on the last occasion. It is an exceedingly fortunate thing there has been no loss of life.”

Explaining that nothing he had said was to be regarded as a reflection on the discharged sailors and soldiers, the Town Clerk said that he had the greatest admiration for all who served the country in the Forces, but although these men did their duty in the war, there was no reason why soldiers and sailors should seek to govern when they came back.

They only formed a portion of the community and, while their wishes and desires must receive consideration, they alone could not decide what should or should not be done, and it would be better for them if they looked at things from the proper standpoint. The two ex-servicemen's organisations had written disclaiming any responsibility for these most regrettable happenings, and the Labour Party had written condemning them.

Various legal definitions arising in connection with the charges were then dealt with by the Town Clerk, and High Court cases quoted to show the interpretations to be placed on the sections under which these proceedings were instituted.