Pte Alfred Ewart Dean, 32422, 7th Battalion Norfolk Regiment, was killed in action at Gonnelieu, France, on November 20th, 1917, at the start of the Battle of Cambrai. He was aged 19.

Comrade L-Cpl Price wrote to parents Thomas Alfred and Eva Dean at 45 Bailey Street, Luton, that their son was killed instantly by a piece of shrapnel piercing his brain.

"I and another stretcher-bearer buried him just where he was killed, and the grave, I can truly say, is a credit too our handiwork," wrote L-Cpl Price. "For one to preserve characteristics such as his is a greater victory than military attainments. He was ever ready to assist by precept and practice, and for that alone he is missed by us all. Of such a degree of coolmindedness and courage was he that he inspired all with the same degree of self-confidence."

Ewart (as he was known) had assisted his master butcher father in his business before enlisting in January 1917. He underwent training at Dovercourt and Felixstowe in Suffolk before going to France on June 22nd.

Unfortunately his was one of seven graves of soldiers destroyed in later fighting, and Ewart is now commemorated on special memorials created in Villers Hill British Cemetery, Villers-Guislain.