Luton's People 1914-1918
This page contains a list of soldiers/civilians from Luton and surroundings 1914-1918, and the ancestors of people who live in Luton today. It has been compiled from the 1918 Luton Absent Voters List, Rolls of Honour; and information researched and uploaded by project volunteers and members of the public.
If you find your ancestor here, and there is only basic information available, then feel free to use the comment box to add further information you may already know. The WWI Project Team, can then add this further information to the basic data we already hold.
The sources of this information can be found via the links below. Please feel free to download and use this information, but please please search for and upload your ancestor to the site if/when you find them:-
Absent Voters List
Luton Roll of honour
Before adding anybody to the site, it is always advisable to search for your ancestor first.
Pte Lionel Ralph Worsley, 3/7730, 7th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action in the Big Advance at the start of the Battle of the Somme on July 1st, 1916. He was aged 33, married and lived at 24 Ash Road, Luton.
Pte Frank Gates, 13335, 7th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action in the "Big Push" on the Somme on July 1st, 1916. He was aged 23.
L-Cpl Charley George Cox, 19213, 7th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action on the Somme on July 1st, 1916. He would have been 22 years old the following week.
Sgt William Hyde, 13379, 7th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, died in the 21st Casualty Clearing Station in France on July 2nd, 1916, from wounds sustained the previous day at the start of the Battle of the Somme.
Pte William Fensome, 18837, Machine Gun Corps, and formerly with the Essex Regiment (9882), was killed in action on July 1st, 1916, in the "Big Push" at the start of the Battle of the Somme.
Pte Horace Bleaney, 22762, 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action at Trones Wood on the Somme on July 3rd, 1916. He left a widow and two boys.
Private Thomas George James Smith, 15123, 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action on the Somme on July 3rd, 1916. He was aged 23.
Pte Arthur Edward Gadsby (served as Gadstone), 3/4165, 2nd Battalion Hampshire Regiment, was killed in action on July 5th, 1916. He was aged 32.
Lance-Corporal Stanley Dean Swift, 20735, 7th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, died on July 6th, 1916, from wounds he had received during the opening of the Battle of the Somme. He was aged 22, a native of Luton and went out to the front on February 24th, 1916.
Pte Percy John Clark, 2872, 5th London Regiment (London Rifles), died in the Military Hospital, Le Tréport, France, on July 7th, 1916, from wounds received on July 1st, the first day of the Battle of the Somme. He had been in the fighting line for two or three months.
Pte Herbert Graves, 20098, 7th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action on the Somme on July 1st, 1916. He was aged 25.
Pte Alfred 'Bert' Walker, 12062, 6th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action on the Somme on July 10th, 1916. A letter from the Front said the 23-year-old had died while adding dressings to a wounded man while under heavy bombardment.
Pte William John Clibbon, 12521, 6th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action on the Somme on July 10th, 1916. An older brother, Sgt Joseph Clibbon, 5832, 2nd Bedfords, had died of battlefield wounds on February 20th, 1915 (Merville Communal Cemetery).
Pte Sydney Jesses Gurney, 17976, 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment,was killed in action on the Somme on July 11th, 1916. He was aged 26.
Pte Edwin Benjamin Eales, 12902, 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action on the Somme on July 11th, 1916. He was aged 24.
Born in Hammersmith, London, in 1891, he was the son of Kate and the late Edwin Eales, who died in Luton in 1902 at the age of 42.
Rifleman Henry Oliver Philip Foster, 471290, 1/12th Battalion London Regiment (The Rangers), was killed in action on the Somme on July 1st, 1916. He was aged 20.
Pte Thomas Walter Troubridge, 8929, 2nd Battalion King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, was killed in action on the opening day of the Battle of the Somme, July 1st, 1916.
Driver Sidney John Indge, 52590, Royal Horse Artillery, was killed in action on the Somme on July 1st, 1916. He was at first reported missing.
The son of Harry George and Elizabeth Mary Indge, of 45 Ramridge Road, Round Green, he was born in late 1890.
Pte William George Peck, 11369, 1st Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regiment), was killed in action on the Somme on July 7th, 1916. He was aged 28, and a son of Walter and Eliza Peck, of 66 Oak Road, Luton.
Pte Josiah Webb, 18683, 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, died on July 12th, 1916, from wounds sustained in action near Trones Wood on the Somme.
Charles Henry Matthews was born in Luton in January 1886. The youngest of 2 sons born to Joseph & Kate.
Pte Walter George Bryan, 18238, 6th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was presumed killed in action on the Somme on or after July 15th, 1916. He was aged 30.
Ronald McCormick, 3142, 1/5th Bedfordshire Regiment, died of enteric fever (typhoid) at the 18th Stationary Hospital, Suez, on July 16th, 1916. He was aged 26.
Pte Joseph Payne, 18510, 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, died on July 16th, 1916, from wounds sustained on the Somme ten days previously.
Father of ten children, Pte Alfred George Brown, 21170, 7th Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment, was killed in action on the Somme on July 16th, 1916. He was aged 38, and his enlistment documents stated that he was fit for home service only.
Pte Albert Ford, 25327, 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, died on July 17th, 1916, of wounds sustained on the Somme. He was aged 19 and the second son of John and Emma Ford, of 48 Burr Street, Luton, to die on the battlefield.
Pte Leonard Stapleton, 18413, 7th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action on the Somme on July 18th, 1916. He was aged 33.
Born in 1883 in Stondon, Beds, he was the son of Sarah Stapleton, who married George Hyde in Stondon, also that year.
Second-Lieut Arthur Haworth, King's Liverpool Regiment, attached to the Machine Gun Corps, was killed in action rallying his men against a German counter-attack on the Somme on July 19th, 1916. He was aged 20.
Cpl Fred Smith, 6289, 2/4th Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment, was killed in action on the Somme on July 19th, 1916. He was aged 24 and one of five sons of Thomas George and Sophia Smith, of 73 North Street, Luton, serving with the Colours.
Pte Ernest Barker, 3/7094, 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action on October 28th, 1914, during the First Battle of Ypres.
Meredyth Robert Owen Williams was born in April 1894. He was the youngest of 6 children born to Alderman Herbert Owen & Edith Jane.
Pte Ernest George Foord, 27058, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment attached to the 10th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment, was killed in action on July 22nd, 1916, after serving only three weeks on the Somme. He was aged 29.
Pte Albert Smith, 27481, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was the second son of George and Sophia Smith, of 73 North Street, Luton, to be killed in action on the Somme within four days. He died on July 22nd, 1916, at the age of 21.
Pte Aubrey Stanbridge, 27467, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, attached to the 10th Worcesters, was killed in action on the Somme on July 23rd, 1916.
John Edward Godfrey, formerly Sapper 1611, 2nd East Anglian Division Royal Engineers, died on July 24th, 1916, nearly 18 months after being discharged as medically unfit for military service. Born in Caddington, he was aged 32.
L-Cpl Edwin Granville Harvey, 14925, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action on the Somme at Longueval on July 24th, 1916. He was aged 21.
Pte Percy Haydn Day, 15608, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, died of wounds sustained in action on the Somme on July 27th, 1916.
Pte Charles Gregory, 3/6858, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action on the Somme on July 27th, 1916.