Pte William Scrivener, 18757, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment (transferred to 208th Division Employment Corps, Labour Corps - 22240), died probably from shell shock in France when the area he was in came under fire on August 12th, 1917.

It was Capt Stephens, of the Beds Regiment, who wrote to widow Mary Ellen Scrivener at 112 Wenlock Street with the news of her husband's death. He wrote:

"I very much regret to have to write to tell you that your husband died last night, probably as the result of shell shock. I understand he went to bed about the usual time with his four companions who sleep in the same hut.

"About 11.30 pm they were wakened by a few shells which fell in this neighbourhood. As your husband was putting on his clothes, so as to take cover in the trench outside if necessary, he seemed to his friends to go in a faint. The medical officer was immediately summoned and was very quickly on the spot, but he could only pronounce life extinct. His death was due to heart failure.

"I feel very much for you in your loss. He had always been a good worker and had been attached to Headquarters, and will be missed by many friends on the staff here."

The Senior Chaplain to the Forces also wrote a letter on condolence in which he said Pte Scrivener had been laid to rest in a military cemetery.

William Scrivener was living in Boyle Street when he enlisted in the Bedfordshire Regiment in January 1915. He had been in France for two years and three months, and before joining up was a stoker at Luton Gas Works.

He was born in Luton in 1878, the son of Alfred and Eliza Scrivener, and the family moved to Barnoldswick in Lancashire. There, William met local girl Mary Ellen Shackleton and they were married in Barnoldswick Parish Church on July 16th, 1899. Their son William Alfred was born in Barnoldswick on May 10th, 1900.

Mary remarried in 1920 in Keighley, Yorkshire. Her new husband was William Mitchell.