Pte Harry Ford, 41898, 1st Battalion Northants Regiment, Machine Gun Section, became the third son lost to his family when he was killed in action in France on September 24th, 1918, a month before his 19th birthday.

An officer wrote to parents John and Emma Ford at 48 Burr Street, Luton: “Your son was killed instantaneously on the morning of September 24th. He was killed by machine gun bullets in the trench which was our final objective, and was buried with several others close by by the battalion chaplain.”

He had joined up about five months previously and had been in France only eight or nine weeks. Before joining up he was employed as a coal carter by Messrs Godden and Rudd.

Harry's brother Fred was killed in November 1914, and brother Albert Ford in 1916. A surviving son was fighting in Italy. [Frederick is commemorated twice on the Luton War Memorial in the names of Frederick Ford, with his stepfather's surname, and as Frederick John East, with his mother's maiden name].