Pte Stanley Squires Cawdell, 5329, 15th County of London Regiment (Civil Service Rifles), was killed in action near Ypres on January 11th, 1917. He was 30 years old and the son of Sarah Ann (nee Squires) and the late William George Cawdell (died 1906), of 244 High Town Road, Luton.

Stanley Cawdell was an old boy of St Matthew's School and had been employed as a clerk by the Midland Railway Co. He was also secretary of the local Midland Railway Football Club. He had tried five times to enlist before joining the Civil Service Rifles in December 1915.

Pte Cawdell's brother in Barnet was first sent news of his death by his Company Sgt-Major, who wrote that Stanley had been buried in a military cemetery close to Ypres.

Official notification was received by Mrs Cawdell from Lieut J. Neill. He wrote that her son was the finest lad in his platoon, and before going into the trenches his name had gone forward to be made a lance-corporal. "He was a hero - even to the last."

A further letter, from Pte H. Plasom, a fellow clerk at the Midland Railway Goods Depot who was serving at the Front alongside Stanley, said Pte Cawdell had fallen a victim to enemy artillery fire.