Pte Herbert Horace Read, 60076, 11th Battalion Royal Fusiliers, was killed in action in Flanders on October 17th, 1917.

His death was not notified to his family at 11 Back Street, Luton, at the time, and two months later, having received no communication from him for several weeks, his mother Emily appealed for information. A letter from the Front compounded her uncertainty in saying it was thought Pte Read had been sent to hospital on October 28th suffering from concussion of the brain, but it was not known to which hospital he had been sent.

Hubert Read, described as an iron foundry labourer in the 1911 Census, had worked for Hayward Tyler in Luton. He joined the Bedfordshire Regiment (No. 4075) at the outbreak of war and was sent to France in September 1916.

In June 1917 he sustained 20 wounds as the result of being hit by splinters and shrapnel during the explosion of a mine, and was admitted to Napsbury War Hospital in England. It was not until her son sent a postcard from the hospital that his mother became aware of what had happened to him then. He returned to the Front in August 1917.

The Commonwealth War Grave Commission says Herbert (with the regimental number given as 60077) was buried at the Cement House Cemetery, north of Ypres in Belgium.

Herbert was an old scholar at the Wesleyan Central Mission. Three of his brothers were also serving, two in France and one in Egypt.