Pte Harry Gentle, 10433, 1st Bedfordshires, was killed in action in Flanders on November 15th, 1915. He was aged 18.
He had joined the Army about four months before war broke out, and prior to enlisting he had worked for Cookson and Co, straw hat manufacturers, of 7 Bute Street, Luton.
A newspaper article describing him as Pte Henry Gentle, said Mrs Gentle, of 17 Adelaide Terrace, Luton, had received letters from his company commander and a friend.
Pte Oswald Simmonds, 7948, 1st Battalion, Loyal North Lancashire Regt, was presumed killed in action on October 31st, 1914. But it was 15 months later before his wife Rose Lilian received official notification of his death.
Pte Simmonds, who was aged about 30, was included in the lists of men who had joined the colours that were printed in the Luton News in 1914. His address was given as 56 May Street, Luton, the address also included on the Luton Roll of Honour.
L-Cpl Arthur Thomas Highton, 3874, 1/5th Bedfords, died in the University War Hospital, Southampton, on November 10th, 1915, after suffering from dysentery at Gallipoli. He was aged 18.
The only son of cabinet maker Frederick George Highton and wife Annie (nee Harris), of Orlingbury, Havelock Road, Luton, he enlisted in the 1/5th Beds Regiment soon after the outbreak of war. He served in the Signals Section under Lieut F. W. Ballance (from Dunstable), and while in Gallipoli won his first stripe.
Pte Alfred Tuffnell, 3/8144, 7th Battalion Beds Regt, died in Flanders on November 4th, 1915. Surprisingly nothing seems to have appeared about him in the local Press around the time of his death, unlike the deaths of two brothers.
Alfred was the third of three sons - Henry, Benjamin plus Alfred - who had still been living with their widowed mother Ann Tuffnell at 15 York Street, Luton, to perish in the war. And a fourth son, George, had died in 1903 following an accident at Hayward Tyler's, where he worked.
Bertram Alfred Clark was born in Luton in 1882. He was the eldest of 3 sons born to Charles Alfred & Eliza.
On 8th June 1908 Bertram married Beatrice Kate Crick.
In 1911 He is living at 16 Buxton Road & working as a clerk in a sawmill. Beatrice is working as a straw hat finisher at home whilst looking after their 1 year old daughter Winifred Kate. They have a boarder living with them, 28 year old Ellen Ellingham who is also working as a straw hat finisher.
Percival Edward Clark was born in Luton in January 1891, the youngest of 3 sons born to Charles & Eliza.
In 1911 he is 20 years old & working as a clerk in a warehouse & living at 63a Inkerman Street. His father Charles Alfred is 55 & a foreman at a timber sawmill, his mother Eliza is 57 & one of his older brothers, Sidney William is a joiner.
Percival married Ellen Sole on the 24th April 1915 at the Baptist Meeting House, Park Street & on the 24th June 1916 their daughter Vera was born.
In 1911 He is 15 years old & working as a block maker. He is living at No 7 Hazelbury Crescent with his family. His father Edward is 44 & also working as a block maker, his mother Amelia is 43. Ewart's 2 brothers are living here too, Percy is 24 & a clothes & draper's shop assistant & Edward James is 3 years old.
Company Sgt-Major Herbert William Sexton, 935, 1/2nd East Anglian Field Company, Royal Engineers, died of enteric fever on October 30th, 1915, while serving with the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. He was aged 21 and was buried at Pieta Military Cemetery, Malta.
Prior to the war he had been Booking Clerk at the Great Northern Railway station in Bute Street, Luton. His father James was a railway signalman living at Knebworth, Herts, with Elizabeth. Herbert was one of their 10 children.
Sidney Case was the only child of John & Ellen. He was born in Deepcar, Yorkshire in June 1897.
In 1911 he is living at 205 Hitchin Road, Luton. His father John is 35 years old & a carpenter's labourer, his mother Ellen is 38 & at home & Sidney is 13 years old & working as a doctor's errand boy. His cousin Percy Whittaker is living with them, he is 15 & working as a house boy.
Charles Henry Carrington was born in Luton in 1875.
On 15th August 1894 he married Rose Ellen Mouse in Luton.
In 1911 they are living at 44 Lyndhurst Road. Charles, 36 is working as a straw hat dyer & 38 year old Rose Ellen is at home looking after their 4 daughters, Dorothy Margot 16, Phyllis Geraldine 15, Gwendoline 13 & 10 year old Leila Beryl.
L-Cpl Charles Bryan Hobbs, 17138, 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards, was killed in action in France on October 19th, 1915. He was aged 23 and had been in charge of a bomb-throwing section.
Tyneside-born L-Cpl Hobbs was the eldest son of Mrs Mary Robertson Hobbs and the late Mr Philip Hobbs. At the time of her eldest son's death Mrs Hobbs was living at 'Kentville,' 83 Conway Road, Luton.
Lieut Stanley Burnet, 17th Training Squadron, Royal Air Force, died in a flying accident at Yatesbury, Wiltshire, on May 31st, 1918. He had joined the Royal Flying Corps on March 4th ahead of it becoming the RAF and earned his flying certificate in a Caudron Bi-Plane at Ruffy-Baumann school in Acton.
William Brooks was born in Nottingham in 1881. 1 of 13 children born to Albert & Emma.
On 11th December 1899, aged 18 years old William married Clara Smith in Luton.
In 1901 he is working as a milkman, Clara is working as a straw hat finisher & they are living with their 1 year old son Baden William at 42 Arthur Street.
In 1908 William married Annie Frost, because in January 1905 Clara had died.