Lance-Corporal Stanley Dean Swift, 20735, 7th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, died on July 6th, 1916, from wounds he had received during the opening of the Battle of the Somme. He was aged 22, a native of Luton and went out to the front on February 24th, 1916.
He had married Emily Lydia Carter at St Paul's Church on November 1st, 1915, and it was to her at her family home, 37 Tavistock Street, Luton, that Church of England Chaplain the Rev J. M. S. Walker wrote from the 21st Casualty Clearing Station where her husband died.
The Chaplain said Stanley did not seem to suffer. He carefully prepared for and received Holy Communion before the end came, and his body was laid to rest in the grounds of the hospital.
Before enlisting, L-Cpl Swift was employed as a stiffener at Messrs Gillam's hat factory in Hibbert Street, Luton.
Emily was remarried in Romford, Essex, in the early summer of 1918. Her new husband was called Gordon Kerr.