Pte Frederick William Miller, 7469, 1st Battalion, Beds Regt, was killed in action near Ypres on November 7th, 1914. He was aged 35.

Born at Writtle, near Chelmsford, on November 5th, 1879, he moved from Essex to Luton shortly before the First World War and worked for about three years at the Skefko Ball Bearing Co Ltd, Leagrave Road. In 1912 he married widow Salome Annie Standbridge, who had a family of five or six children, and they lived at 70 Highbury Road, Luton.

Himself one of eight children, he attested at Chelmsford on August 9th, 1897, to join the Essex Regiment. He served with the regiment through the Boer War, for which he was awarded the South Africa medal. He had also served in India

During World War One he went out to France with the Bedfords, arriving at Le Havre on the night of August 15th, 1914. According to a wounded comrade and former Skefko worker who wrote to his widow, they were together in the trenches [south of Menin Road] when Pte Miller received a fatal wound.

In a letter, Company Quartermaster Sergeant T. W. Byford, D Company, 1st Beds, said Pte Miller "died the death of a gallant British soldier whilst doing his duty in the trenches".

Pte Miller is commemorated on the Luton Roll of Honour and the Civic Centre Memorial, Chelmsford.

[The Luton News, December 17th, 1914]