L-Cpl Thomas John (Jack) Heley, 15743, 7th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, died on September 29th, 1916, from wounds sustained on the Somme.
Born in Leighton Buzzard in 1883, he had moved to Luton by 1911 and was living at 180 Wellington Street with his widower father, Fred, and a younger brother and two sisters. He was employed as a carpenter by builder Mr Arthur Cole, of 183 High Town Road.
He joined the Bedfordshire Regiment in September 1914 and was drafted out to France. In May 1916, while on ten days leave, he married Elizabeth Simpson, of High Town Road. She remarried in 1922.
At the time of Jack Heley's death,his father was living at 12 Winsdon Road, Luton, and brother Fred was in Reading Hospital receiving treatment for wounds. A third brother, Bandsman Tom Heley, was serving with the Bedfordshire Regiment, having rejoined his regiment after three months in hospital in Malta for treatment for dysentery contracted while serving as a stretcher-bearer at Gallipoli. The two younger brothers lived in Leighton Buzzard.
L-Cpl Heley is commemorated on the Luton Roll of Honour as John Heley with an address at 305 Hitchin Road, Luton - by then the home of Elizabeth, her parents and siblings.