Page 501 - Reading Mercury

st
Sat 21 Nov.
ALARM OF FIRE
On Wednesday morning Mrs. Jenkins was sitting at her window in Peach Street,
when she saw some children opposite in South Place light a fire among the tarpaulin,
cloths, and etc., that, with a G.P.O. linesman’s truck, were standing on a waste piece
of ground. The fire blazed up, and an alarm was given. The fire brigade turned up and
the outbreak was quickly extinguished, or valuable tools, etc., might have been
destroyed.

WOKINGHAM MAN ON THE M.1.
Rumours were rife that four Wokingham men had lost their lives in the disaster last
week to Submarine M1. Fortunately this estimate proved incorrect as regards three of
the men whose names were mentioned, but every sympathy is extended to Mr. and
Mrs. Henry Jewell, of 33, Rose Street, in the loss of their son. Henry George Jewell,
A.B., who went down with the ill-fated vessel. He only returned from leave the
Monday previous to the Thursday’s disaster. He joined the Navy as a lad in 1916, and
had been on the Submarine M1 for two years. He served in the Great War on H.M.S.
Barham. He had been living recently at Shepperton with his wife and two children,
one a girl of nine years and the younger a little girl of five months old. Mrs. Jewell,
his mother, attended the memorial service at Portland.
George Spratley, A.B., of East Heath, had a narrow escape, as he came off the M1
only four days before the disaster. He is now at home, on leave, and speaks with deep
regret of having seen from one of H.M. ships the sinking of the M1, of whose reserve
crew he was a member.
Able seaman Abraham Turner, now of Silchester, and brother to Mr. Charles
Turner, of 25, Oxford Road, Wokingham, is serving on the Submarine L71. He at one
time lived at Embrook, Wokingham. Rumour was busy with the names both of
Seaman Spratley (who is not the Percy Spratley who perished with the vessel) and
Turner.
Mr. and Mrs. Manning of Rose Street, have no son in the Navy.

1926

th
Sat 20 March
TENDERS
The Wokingham Board of Guardians have placed contracts as follows: Bread, Mr.
A.T. Clements, Wokingham; groceries, Messrs. Colebrook and Co., Wokingham;
drapery, Messrs. Mills and Co., London; haircutting, Mr. E. Stevens, Wokingham.

WORKERS EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION
At a meeting of the local branch, Mr. W. Foster, hon. secretary gave a satisfactory
report of the Study Circle terminal course. Mr. F.E. Pollard, the lecturer, is to be
invited to take a year’s course of 21 lessons on general economics, to commence in
October.

HOSPITAL COMMITTEE
The annual meeting was held in the Committee Room, Town Hall. Mr. M. Norris
was elected chairman, and Mr. W. C. Fullbrook vice-chairman, Mr. A.H. Jones hon.

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