Pte William James Wells, 38483, 19th Field Ambulance Royal Army Medical Corps, died of wounds in France on June 9th, 1918. No further detail were given in local newspapers.

His death was recorded in the Luton News in just one paragraph, even though he had been elected secretary of the Luton Conservative and Unionist Association in 1913 and featured prominently as an election worker from 1911 until he initially joined the transport section of the Royal Engineers in 1914 at the start of the war.

Born in Pimlico, London, William had lived in Luton since at least 1891, when the Census recorded him as a 13-year-old office boy living with his aunt, Harriet, and her husband Jesse Giltrow at 37 Havelock Road, Luton.

William was included on a Conservative & Unionist roll of honour prepared for a dinner at the Winter Assembly Hall in Luton in October 1919, when around 160 returned servicemen who belonged to the association were welcomed home.