Pte Thomas James Holliman, 18236, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action on May 6th, 1915 (CWGC record, but chums at the time said May 5th). He lived at 404 Hitchin Road, Luton, and was aged 28.

An old Volunteer, he joined the 3rd Battalion Beds Regt just before Christmas 1914 and was quickly transferred to the 1st Bedfords before being sent to France.

Pte Harold Campbell Abbott, 10398, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action around Hill 60 on April 17th, 1915.

Aged 19, he was the second son of Mrs Emily Abbott and the late Mr James Abbott, of 96 Oak Road, Luton. He joined the 1st Bedfords in October 1913 after working in the straw trade.

Pte Clement Victor Arthur Custance, 14095, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, died of wounds on April 24th, 1915. He was born in 1892.

Born in Slough, Berkshire, he was living with his widowed dressmaker mother Mary Ann and a borough labourer brother Henry James at 112 Langley Street, Luton, at the time of the 1911 Census. Clement was a stringer in a dye house.

Pte Sydney George Bright, 3/7100 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action at Hill 60 in Flanders on April 18th, 1915. He was aged 20.

Born at Turners End, Toddington, he lived with his parents Mr E. and Mrs M. Bright in Chalton. He was well known in the Luton district as a telegraph boy. He had been a pupil of Toddington National School/St George's Church of England Lower.

Drummer Albert Edward Cockle, 8041, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action at Hill 60 in Flanders on April 19th, 1915. He was aged 29.

Drummer Cockle, son of Walter and Emma Cockle, had served in the Bedfords for nearly 11 years, mostly in India and South Africa. He had returned from South Africa the previous September.

Cpl Walter Seabrook Gay, 14058, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regimen, was killed in action at Hill 60, Flanders, on April 21st, 1915. His family home was at 33 Chapel Street, Luton. He was born in Goole, Yorkshire, in July 1880 to John and Annabella.

Pte Frederick Keen, 3/8793, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action at Hill 60 in Flanders on April 21st, 1915. He was born in Caddington and his family home was in Luton.

Pte Henry (Harry) Tuffnell, 7578, B Company, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action at the Battle of Hill 60, Flanders, on April 21st, 1915. He was initially listed as missing.

His home address was 15 York Street, Luton, and prior to being called up as a reservist was employed at Commercial Cars Ltd as a foundry worker. He had previously served in the Boer War.

He was last home in November 1914 and had returned to France just before Christmas.

Pte William Shane, 18166, C Company, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action in trenches at Hill 60 on April 19th, 1915.

Aged 35, he was the son of Mr and Mrs Henry Shane, of 69 Duke Street, Luton, but was living at Round Green when war broke out. A former militiaman, he enlisted in October 1914 and was eventually sent abroad with a draft of to the 1st Bedfords. He had previously written to his brother George in Richmond Hill about a narrow escape in which a bullet hit a sandbag and gave him a black eye as it passed through his hat.

Pte Frederick Lawrence, 3/6115, 1st Battalion, Beds Regt, was killed in action near Ypres on March 29th, 1915.

Born in Luton in 1889, he married Nellie Eliza Evans in 1906 and lived at 32 Duke Street, Luton. At the time of the 1911 Census he is described as a dye yard labourer with a son, Leslie aged three, and daughter Violet Maisie, aged six months. The family then lived at 22 Duke Street.

Nellie remarried after Frederick's death and continued to live at 32 Duke Street.

Augustus Fensome was born in Luton in October 1894, only son of Albert & Sarah Ann.

His father was a printer & stationer. The family are living at 41 Waller Street in 1901.

In 1911 48 year old Sarah Ann is now widowed & has taken on the family business in Waller Street, 14 year old Augustus is working as a boy clerk, his 21 year old sister Hilda Muriel is living with them.

Walter Smith was captured on the 22nd October 1914, and interned in a POW camp near Munster when he wrote to his sister asking for food.

He was found by the Germans suffering froma grenade wound to the right shoulder.

Lance Corporal Harry Hack, 9564, 1st Battalion, Beds Regt, was killed in action near Wulvergem in Belgium on January 8th, 1915. He was aged 26.

For his widow, who was living at 71 Ivy Road, Luton, it was the first of two tragedies within a week - the couple's only child, Harry Robert, died on January 14th, aged just five months.

Pte Frederick William Miller, 7469, 1st Battalion, Beds Regt, was killed in action near Ypres on November 7th, 1914. He was aged 35.

Born at Writtle, near Chelmsford, on November 5th, 1879, he moved from Essex to Luton shortly before the First World War and worked for about three years at the Skefko Ball Bearing Co Ltd, Leagrave Road. In 1912 he married widow Salome Annie Standbridge, who had a family of five or six children, and they lived at 70 Highbury Road, Luton.

Pte Archibald (Archer) Punter, 5604, 1st Battalion, Beds Regt, was killed in action on November 16th, 1914, in the First Battle of Ypres. He was a married man aged 33, whose wife lived at 24 Dane Road, Luton.