Company Sgt Major Arthur Fountain, 15400, 7th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action on the Somme on September 27th, 1916.

Born in Markyate in 1881, he was a son of the late William Richard and Sarah Ann Fountain,of Luton Road, Markyate. He enlisted on September 7th, 1914, and had served at the Front without a scratch for about 18 months, with just one brief spell of home leave.

Pte Percy George Lane, 14614, 7th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action on the Somme on September 27th, 1916. He was aged 22 and the only son of George and Elizabeth Lane, of 212 High Town Road, Luton.

Born in Coleshill, Amersham, Bucks, he was familiarly known as 'Mandy' to football comrades in Luton Victoria Rangers FC. Prior to enlistment he was a moulder at the Borough Engineering Works in Luton.

Pte Arthur Dumpleton, 27845, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action on the Somme on September 25th, 1916.

Born in 1877 at Stopsley, he was a son of Daniel and Ann Dumpleton. He was living with his then widower father in Gardenia Avenue, Leagrave, at the time of the 1911 Census and, like his parent, had become a gamekeeper. Daniel was bailiff at Little Bramingham Farm in 1881 and gamekeeper at Wigmore Hall Farm in 1891, when the family lived at Ramridge End Cottage. Both father and son were gamekeepers at Little Bramingham Farm in 1901.

Henry Ewart Rawlings was born in 1886 in Cricklewood, Middlesex. 1 of 5 children born to Sarah & George, a railway engine driver.

In 1911 he is living with his family at 106 Chetwynd Road, Highgate, London, he is 25 years old & working as a railway clerk.

His mother Sarah is 55 & widowed, elder brother George is 28 a motor car engine fitter & younger brother Jack is a general clerk for a antiques dealer. They have a lodger living with them, 17 year old Sidney Beck who is working as a boy clerk for the government.

Pte William Brooks, 43555, 182nd Company, Machine Gun Corps (Infantry), was killed in action on the Somme on September 24th, 1916. He was aged 35 and left a widow,Annie, and four children - Baden, Edith, Elsie and Madge.

Pte Sidney George Peters, 26088, 9th Battalion The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, died on September 9th, 1916, from wounds sustained in action on the Somme.

The news about their eldest son reached his father George and mother Alice at their home in Bury Road [now St Thomas's Road], Stopsley, two weeks later through an army chaplain at the No 36 Casualty Clearing Station in France. The wounds Sidney had sustained were so grievous that moving him was an impossibility, they learned.

L-Cpl Joshua Dyer, G/14527, 2nd Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment, died in Netley Hospital, near Southampton, on September 22nd, 1916, after being severely wounded on the Western Front. He had transferred from the Bedfordshire Regiment.

The 19-year-old son of Frederick Henry and Mary Jane Dyer, of the White House, Pepperstock, had been lying wounded in the back by a shell on the battlefield a day and a night before a compassionate Scotsman got him into a dressing station. He was transferred to Netley, where he died three days later.

Pte Thomas James Swain, 18970, 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, was killed in action on the Somme on or shortly after September 10th, 1916. He was aged 21.

The son of Luton Corporation employee Arthur Swain and his wife Jane, of 30 Arthur Street, Luton,

he had enlisted in August 1914. Previously he had been employed for 18 months by Messrs Powdrill.

Pte Harold Ronald Kempson, 43563, 140th Company, Machine Gun Corps (Infantry), died on September 22nd, 1916, from wounds sustained in action on the Somme. He was aged 34 and had lived at 18 Inkerman Street, Luton.

Born in Luton in 1882, the son of David and Elizabeth Kempson, he had married Florence Mary (nee Going) in 1909. In 1911 the couple were living at 20 Hampton Road, Luton, with their 10-month-old son Albert Edward. At the time Ronald, as he was known, was a straw hat machinist. He had previously served in the Beds Regiment (5323).

Pte William Fensome, 21426, 12th Battalion Suffolk Regiment, died at a casualty clearing station in France on September 20th, 1916, from wounds sustained on the battlefield the previous day.

The Battalion was a 'Bantam' unit to which William was able to join in September 1915 after failing a height test to enlist in other regiments earlier. He was therefore below the regulation 5ft 3in in height.

Cpl Percy Bertram Stimson, 2723, 24th Battalion London Regiment (The Queen's) is recorded as dying of wounds on September 17th, 1916. But a sergeant who wrote to his parents said he had been seen by comrades to be wounded during a charge on September 18th but was not among the men picked up by his regiment's stretcher bearers.

Cpl Stimson, who had celebrated his 22nd birthday six weeks before his death, was the son of Frank and Annie Stimson, of 45 Alma Street, Luton. He had been employed in the warehouse of Messrs Vyse, Sons and Co.

Pte William Cooper, 20266, 8th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, died on September 18th, 1916, from wounds sustained in action on the Somme. He was aged 21 and died on an ambulance barge in France.

Born in Ayot St Peters in June 1895, Herts, he was one of ten children born to John and Ann (Annie) Sophia Cooper, who were living at 352 Hitchin Road, Luton, at the time of his death. In the 1911 Census William was a farm labourer living with his parents and three older brothers and two old sisters at 44 Round Green, Luton.

Sgt Arthur Huckle, 18233, 8th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action on the Somme on September 15th, 1916.

Born in Clophill in 1882, he married Ellen Richardson in 1901. At the time of the 1911 Census Arthur was a cowman on a farm at Haynes Church End, Beds, and the couple had four children - Emily, aged 8, George, 6, John, 4, and William, 1.

Pte Christopher Perry, 22395, 8th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action on the Somme on September 15th, 1916. He was aged 47.

Born in Luton in 1869, he married Emily Jane Crook in Luton in 1893. He had a married daughter, Rose, and a son, William, and in 1911 the family were living at 24 Spring Place, Luton. The address on the Luton Roll of Honour is given as 4 Park Place, Luton.

Pte Walter Henman, 19546, 8th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action on the Somme on September 15th, 1916. He was aged 21 and the second son of William and Alice Henman, of Breachwood Green, to die in France in 11 days.

Born on April 24th, 1895, Walter Henman had undergone 11 months of training at Ampthill before going to the Front in January 1916. Prior to enlistment he worked as a farm labourer for Mr W. Ivory at Winch Hill Farm, near Luton.