Pte Percy Haydn Day, 15608, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, died of wounds sustained in action on the Somme on July 27th, 1916.

Born in the summer of 1895, he was the son of Arthur and Mary Jane Day, of 17 Holly Walk, Luton, where Percy was born and where the family had lived for 23 years. The couple had 11 children, eight of them boys.

Prior to enlisting, Percy was employed in the Bute Street warehouse of hat manufacturers Wright and Giddings. He had been educated at Queen Square School and his father was formerly a straw hat manufacturer.

At the time of his death Pte Day was officer's servant to Capt Henry Burton who was also killed on July 27th. Letters of sympathy from Capt Burton's mother and employer Mr Ernest Giddings were among those sent to Mrs Day.

The picture of Pte Day (in the centre) was published in the Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph on September 2nd, 1916. The group had been billeted in the damaged house behind them but were elsewhere when it was blown to pieces.