From One Mayor to Another

My grandfather, Hedley Lawrence, was 9 years old when he first met the mayor John Henry Staddon. He received then “The Peace Day Medal”, an honour that he preserved and valued until he became the next mayor of Luton in 1954.

Medal

Mayor with Medal

The Peace Day Medal

My grandfather Hedley Lawrence was 9 years old in September 1919 when, as a school boy attending Dunstable Road School, he was presented with The Peace Day Medal. This medal was one of probably at least 7,000 distributed to schoolchildren in Luton. They had been paid for by the former mayor John Henry Staddon, one of the directors of Vyse and Co.

Staddon made the generous donation after it had become clear that very few people had considered the children of Luton when arranging the celebrations for Peace Day. In order to ensure a quality product not paid for out of the local rates and enough for all, Staddon had been authorised to double the amount donated from the original estimate of £100.

Unfortunately, the medal order was made somewhat late and the manufacturer Messrs. Mappin and Webb reported that it would be impossible for them to deliver before 20th August, and so as a consequence well after the July Peace Day Celebrations. This was another background element of complaint that fuelled the rioting in July.

Medal

The Peace Day Medal

Staddon toured the schools of Luton on the Monday and Tuesday before the children’s event of the 18th of September handing out medals in bulk to the head teachers. The medals were handed “over to the children and pinned on their coats or dresses just before they formed up for the procession.”

The children started at Beech Hill and then processed down through George Street, along Park Street and then into Luton Hoo. During the celebrations they drank tea served from 3 marquees and ate a mixture of food supplied by Messrs Slaters of Park Square. There were plenty of sporting activities for the children to take part in and for those not inclined there were clowns and Punch and Judy stalls offering entertainment. The day finished with a firework display to an estimated crowd of 25,000.

In his address to the Council in June 1919, John Staddon had stated:

He thought they were all anxious that if a medal was given it should be one which the children would be tempted to retain, and not discard and forget in a month or two.

Becoming Mayor

My grandfather certainly valued and kept his medal.

He left school aged 14 and then served a 5 year carpenters apprenticeship with the firm of H.C. Janes Ltd. He was elected to Luton Council in 1937 representing the Leagrave Ward and began his first mayoralty 2 days after his 42nd birthday in 1954, becoming the first Quaker Mayor of Luton since William Bigg was elected in 1876.

References:

“Luton’s Peace Celebration Programme”, ‘The Luton News & Bedfordshire Advertiser Thursday, June 5, 1919, Page 5“The Town’s Redemption: Children’s Peace Treat at Luton Hoo”, “The Luton Reporter”, Tuesday, September 23, 1919, Page 2

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