L-Cpl Herbert Smith, 60089, 26th Battalion Royal Fusiliers, was the third of five serving sons of Joseph and Jane Smith, of 58 New Town Street, Luton, to lose his life on the battlefield. He died of wounds in Belgium on August 2nd, 1917.

Herbert had enlisted at the outbreak of war into the Bedfordshire Regiment (40374). He was wounded at Gallipoli and invalided home. After recovery he was drafted into the Royal Fusiliers and went to France.

Before the war he was employed in the blacksmith's shop of the Midland Railway. He left a widow [Florence?] and two children, one a baby of six months old whom he had never seen.

Brothers Pte Alfred Smith lost his life at Gallipoli in 1915, and Driver Arthur Smith was killed in Egypt in 1916 while serving with the East Anglian Royal Artillery.

The name Herbert Smith is included on the Luton Roll of Honour with an address given as 58 New Town Street, but he is described as a private in the 2nd Bedfords (17938). However, that was the regiment, rank and service number of a Herbert Victor Smith, born in Luton to Arthur and Rebecca Smith but living in Flitwick and commemorated on the Flitwick War Memorial.