Private

In the British Army, a private (Pte) equates to both OR-1 and OR-2 on the NATO scale, although there is no difference in rank. Privates wear no insignia. Many regiments and corps use other distinctive and descriptive names instead of private, some of these ranks have been used for centuries, others are less than 100 years old.[2] In the contemporary British Armed Forces, the army rank of private is broadly equivalent to able seaman in the Royal Navy, aircraftman, leading aircraftman and senior aircraftman in the Royal Air Force, and marine (Mne) or bandsman, as appropriate equivalent rank in the Royal Marines. The term as a military rank seems to come from the Sixteenth Century when individuals had the privilege of enlisting or making private contracts to serve as private soldiers in military units.

Private Frederick Charles Foster

Frederick Charles Foster was born in Luton in 1887.

In 1901 he his living with his large family at numbers 66 & 68 John Street, the family bakery. His father Charles is head of the family & is living at number 68 with his mother Marion & brothers Herbert 12, Arthur 9 & 2 year old Thomas. At the shop next door, number 66, 14 year old Frederick is living with his widowed grandmother Mary Foster, his aunt Edith 27, a straw hat machinist, aunt Esther 20, a domestic help, 1 year old cousin Leslie & boarders, Clifford & Edith Campbell who are actors.

Private Ben Carter

Son of George and Ann Carter, brother to Harry, Ann, Matilda, Timothy, Frank, Walter and Thomas Carter.

His father is noted as a widower in the 1901 census, and remarried a Phoebe Graves in 1904. Interestingly, in 1904 Ben is listed as lodging with the Graves family in Highbury Road Luton, and is employed as a Straw Hat Blocker.

Private Thomas Charles Stokes

Thomas Charles Stokes, a corporation labourer , was married to Martha Stokes, and father to Robert. They lived in Windsor Street Luton.

Private William Ansell

William was born in Shillington in 1879.

William married Sarah Deveraux in 1899 in Ampthill.

In 1911 he is living with his wife & family, two daughters, Maud and Elizabeth, and a son, William Frank at Nomansland Cottage, Sandridge St Albans where William is working as a shepherd.

Private Arthur Walter Aylott

Arthur Walter Aylott, formerly a private in the Bedfordshire Regiment (22450) and later the Machine Gun Corps (5200), died at 67 Dumfries Street, Luton, on February 17, 1919, at the age of 21.

He had enlisted in August 1915 and served in the Army just over a year before being invalided out on September 10, 1916 as a result of being gassed. He never fully recovered and developed consumption.

Born in Luton in 1897, only son of the late Bransom and the late Elizabeth Aylott, he had before joining up worked in the bleaching and dyeing trade for Mr Stewart Hubbard.

Private Walter Smith

Walter enlisted into the 5th Bedfordshire Regiment in 1914, aged 32, at the outbreak of war. He died February 1917, and is buried in Rothesay Road Cemetery, Luton.

Son of John and Emily Smith of Luton, he was married to Nellie Smith, and was father to Arthur and Winnie Smith.

Private Ted Parker

Ted Parker, the youngest son of Frank and Sarah Parker, a bootmaker and his wife from Luton who lived at 5 Tavistock. Brother to Frank and older brother to Emily.

He lived with his wife Lillian (nee Wagstaff), and died on home service in 1918. He is buried in Rothesay Road Cemetery.

Private Arthur Catlin

Pte Arthur Catlin, 46908, 660th Agricultural Company, Labour Corps (ex-Suffolk Regiment), died suddenly at Lakenham Hospital, Norwich, on February 14th, 1918, after contracting a serious illness. He was buried at Luton General Cemetery on February 19th, 1918, aged 36.

Bedford-born Arthur married Florence Maud Coleman in Luton in late 1909. The couple lived at 34 Malvern Road, Luton, and Arthur had worked at the English & Scottish Co-operative Society Society's cocoa and chocolate works in Dallow Road, Luton.

Private George Arthur Meeks

George Arthur Meeks died at Wardown Park V.A.D. Hospital in November 1918, shortly after the armistice had been declared.

He was the son of Jesse and Dinah Meeks, a Cambridgeshire Gamekeeper and his wife.

He had 3 older brothers and 1 older sister, and at the beginning of the war he enlisted with the 9th Battalion The Bedfordshire Regiment, but was swiftly transferred to the 432nd Agricultural Coy. Labour Corps, service number 240216

He served with the Labour Corps until his death in 1918.

Private Harry Wilkinson

Many soldiers in WW1 perished and disappeared without trace. But for the Luton family of Private Harry Wilkinson there was a chance to lay his remains to rest 85 years later.

Harry was buried with full military honours and in the presence of the Duke of Kent at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's Prowse Point Military Cemetery in Belgium in 2001. An archaeologist had uncovered Harry's remains in 1999 in a field near a farmhouse he had helped to capture from the Germans on November 10, 1914.

Private Horace Geo. Fredk. Sach