A Smith served in the Queens (Royal West Surrey) Regiment & Labour Corps.

He died on 19th November 1917 & is buried in the cemetery on Crawley Green Road.

Ernest Wright was born in Luton in October 1894.

In 1911 he was 16 years old & working as a straw hat finisher. He was living with his family at 98 Midland Road. His father Sidney 59 is an employer in the straw hat manufacturing trade working from home with some members of the family. Ernest's mother Jane 52, sister Ethel 21 & boarder Agnes Waller 24 are machinists. Twin brother Walter is a general engineer, whilst Beatrice 14 is assisting at home with their invalid sister 28 year old Edith Emma.

Pte George Jenkins, 18252, 2nd Battalion Beds Regt, died on September 30th, 1915, from wounds sustained two days earlier in the Battle of Loos. Some military records suggest he resided in Stopsley, but Press reports at the time described him as from Hockliffe.

Born in Newbury, Berks, on November 5th, 1893, Pte Jenkins married Florence Rose Bleaney, the daughter of Walter and Annie Bleaney, from High Street, Upper Houghton Regis [now High Street North, Dunstable], in early 1914. Their daughter, Florence May, was born in July of that year.

Joseph Walter Wheeler was born in Harefield, Middlesex in 1896.

He was 1 of 5 children born to Herbert & Louisa.

His father was a carter for an asbestos works & died in July 1904 in Harefield, Middlesex, leaving a young family.

In 1911 widowed Louisa 40, a domestic servant, was living with her children at 94 Langley Road, Luton.  Joseph is 15 years old & working as a draper, 19 year old Herbert is an ironmonger & Rose 17, is a general servant for a coal merchant. Violet 12 & 9 year old Cissey are at school.

Pte Herbert Victor Smith, 17938, D Company, 2nd Battalion Beds Regt, was killed in action in the Battle of Loos on September 25th, 1915.

Born in Luton on June 6th, 1898, he spent most of his life in Flitwick, living with his family in Church End as a three-year-old at the time of the 1901 Census. The family later lived in Chapel Road.

He was the son of straw hat goods factory manager/manufacturer Arthur Smith and the late Mrs Rebecca Swales Smith.

Pte Albert Newbury, 18360, 2nd Battalion Bed Regt, was killed in action at the Battle of Loos in Flanders on August 25th, 1915. He had been reported missing and it was not until August 1916 that official notification of his death was received. He was aged 24.

A native of Luton, he lived at 35 Burr Street, Luton, and had married Mary Kirkwood (nee Penman) on July 26th, 1913, and the couple had one child, Alexander, born 1914. Pte Newbury was employed as an iron founder working on gas stoves pipes at the Diamond Foundry before he joined the Bedfords at the outbreak of war.

Pte Albert Hawkes, 13777, 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, died as a result of wounds received in action on his 30th birthday - September 29th, 1915.

He was the husband of Louisa Elizabeth Hawkes, then living at 8 Tavistock Street, Luton, with two young children - Lily aged four and two-year-old Albert.

Official notification of Pte Hawkes' death arrived in October 1915, saying he had died from gunshot wounds to the abdomen. He had enlisted on September 5th, 1914, and had been in the firing line for six months.

Rifleman Peter Murdoch, 2634, D Company, 17th Battalion London Regiment, died on September 27th, 1915, from wounds sustained in action in Flanders.

He was a member of a Scottish family that had come to Luton from Falkirk around 1906-7, and was the first member of his platoon to be killed. He was aged 20.

Pte Arthur Edward Strange, 19791, 7th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action at Bécordel-Bécourt on September 20th, 1915. He was aged 20.

Born and living in Wiltshire most of his life, he had worked in the Air Department at George Kent's in Luton for about a year before enlisting with comrades from the factory at the beginning of 1915. Flags at the Biscot Road factory were flown at half-mast in his memory.

Pte Harry Gillman, 19065, 2nd Battalion Beds Regt, was killed in action at the battle of Loos in France on September 27th*, 1915. He was aged 25.

That, at least, was the eyewitness account of "a great friend" who wrote that he saw him killed instantly by a bullet through his head shortly after 9 am on September 27th. He added that Pte Gillman was buried that night in a nice little grave with a wooden cross on it.

Second-Lieut Johnson Hugh Linsell, 1st Battalion Middlesex Regt, was killed in action leading his platoon against German trenches in the battle of Loos on September 25th, 1915. He was aged 20.

H Davis was born in 1868.

He joined the 57th Protection Company of the Royal Defence Corps & on 29th April 1915 was perfoming railway duties.

He died on 7th February 1917 & was buried in the cemetery on Crawley Gren Road.

James Webb was born in St Pancras, Middlesex in 1873.

In 1892 at the age of 19 James joined the 1st Battalion Kings Shropshire Light Infantry. He served only a year in Hong Kong because the battalion had to leave as there was an outbreak of bubonic plague, but before they left, the battalion helped with sanitary work for the expatriate community, which they were later given an unofficial medal for. James was then sent to India, where he served 10 years.

On 23 December 1903 James married Mary Ann Martin at St Matthews in Luton.

Sidney Ward was 1 of 3 children born to William & Mary in Grantham, Lincolnshire in 1882.

He married Mary Elizabeth Cottam in Nottingham in 1902.

In 1911 he is working for Raleigh as a cycle hand & living with his family at No 4 Nugent Street, Nottingham. Mary is 28 & at home looking after Lillian 8, Doris 4 & 2 year old son Francis.

On 8th January 1912 William joined the 7th Battalion Notts & Derby (Sherwood Foresters) giving his home address as 44 Calcutta Street & his father as next of kin.

William Ernest Tricker was born in July 1893 in Luton.

At 8 years old in 1901 he has been adopted by Rosa Tricker & is living with her & her daughter Florence aged 6 at 26 Pondwicks Road. Rosa is working as a straw hat machinist from home.