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.
Gunner John Patrick Driscoll, 301995, 2/4th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment Lewis Gun Section, was reported missing in action in Belgium on August 27th, 1917, later presumed killed on that date.
Pte James Loughton, 3/7466, 8th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action in Flanders on the night of September 13th-14th, 1917. He was aged 20 but had been serving at Landguard, Suffolk, since before the war.
Driver Horace Gwynn Harding, 810760, 'A' Battery, 232nd Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, died in the 61st Casualty Clearing Station in Flanders on September 15th, 1917, from the effects of a gas attack the previous day.
Rifleman Sydney David East, 451810, 1/11th Battalion London Regiment, was killed in action in Palestine on September 3rd, 1917. He was aged 24 and the son of William and Emily East, of Lyndhurst, 7 Moor Street, Luton.
Pte Sidney Charles Peters, 10576, 'A' Company, 1/2nd London Regiment Royal Fusiliers, was captured by the Germans at Polygon Wood, near Ypres in Belgium, on August 16th, 1917. He was a prisoner of war at Dulmen, Westphalia, Germany, but survived the war and was repatriated.
Pte Thomas Lewis, 235258, Lincolnshire Regiment, was reported missing in action at Wytschaete, Belgium, on July 31st, 1917, during the Battle of Messines, and later to be a prisoner of war of the Germans at Dulmen, Westphalia.
Pte Horace Edgar Hubbocks, 3/7430, 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action in Belgium on September 20th, 1917.
The death in action on September 20th, 1917, in the Third Battle of Ypres in Belgium of Pte Stanley John Roe, 32254, 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment appears to have gone unrecorded in Luton newspapers.
Pte Albert Cooper, 40360, 1/5th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers, was killed in action in Belgium on September 6th, 1917. The Stopsley soldier's death came on the day before his 22nd birthday.
Pte Wilfred John Kibble, 118701, Army Service Corps (M.T.), attached to the 92nd Field Ambulance, Royal Army Service Corps, died of wounds at the 36th Casualty Clearing Station in France, on September 22nd, 1917.
Pte William Jackson, 238023, 12th Battalion Middlesex Regiment, was reported wounded and missing in Flanders on August 7th, 1917, and later presumed dead on that date. He was aged 29, married and had one child.
Pte Percy Edward Roe, 203850, 1/1st Hertfordshire Regiment, was into only his third day in the trenches when he died on September 25th, 1917, from wounds sustained on the battlefield near Ypres. He left behind a young widow whom he married only about three months earlier.
Gunner William James Bass, 111890, 238th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery, in the 2nd Casualty Clearing Station, France, on the evening of September 27th, 1917, from wounds received on the battlefield the previous day.
Rifleman Joseph Walter Kirby, 474416, 2/12th Battalion London Regiment (ex-1907, Royal Army Medical Corps), was killed in action on September 26th, 1917. A letter from the Front said he was shot in the head by a German sniper.
Sgt George Herbert Saddington, 240289, 2/5th Battalion Leicestershire Regiment, died in the 44th Casualty Clearing Station in Flanders on September 28th, 1917, two days after being admitted with a gunshot wound in the neck.
Pte Alfred Arthur Ashton, 33689, 8th Battalion Yorks & Lancs Regiment, was killed in action in Belgium on October 1st, 1917. He was aged 19.
L-Cpl Horace Charles Mayles, 45373, Machine Gun Corps, was killed in action in Flanders on September 20th, 1917. He was aged 24, married with one child and a home address of 14 Wood Street, Luton. He was also a bandsman in the Park Street Salvation Army Temple Band.
Gunner Edwin Ernest Jeffs, 144354, 'C' Battery, 74th Brigade Royal Field Artillery, was killed in action in Flanders on October 4th, 1917, "serving his gun like a hero".
Pte Arthur William Thomas Claridge, G/21209, 6th Battalion The Buffs (East Kent Regiment), died on October 4th, 1917, from wounds sustained in France.
Gunner Ronald William Tearle, 141935, 'C' Battery, 95th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, was killed in action in Belgium by a bursting shell on October 4th, 1917.
Gunner George Hill, 111632, signaller and telephonist with the 253rd Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery, was killed in action during the Third Battle of Ypres on October 4th, 1917. A shell which exploded near him killed him instantly.
Pte Archibald William Clarke, 241584, 1st East Surrey Regiment, died of wounds on October 6th, 1917. He had been at the Front only three weeks after having being transferred from the Middlesex Regiment (5865) to the East Surreys.
Pte William Roe, 27967, 6th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action in Belgium on October 7th, 1917. He was aged 24.
Pte Walter John Smith, 203211, 1/5th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action in Palestine on October 7th, 1917. He was aged 22 and single.
Pte Stanley George Thomas Impey, 40047, 7th Battalion Leicestershire Regiment, died in hospital in Belgium on October 8th, 1917, from the effects of gas poisoning.
Pte David Lewis Fessey, 206905, 10th Battalion Royal West Surrey Regiment, was killed in action in Flanders on September 22nd, 1917. His home was at 13 Dunstable Place, Luton, with his widowed mother Mary and sister Emily.
Pte Frederick Stevens, 17371, 11th Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment, was killed in action in Flanders on September 26th, 1917. He was aged 19 and single.
Pte Gerald Noel Lovell, 31617, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action in Flanders on October 9th*, 1917, according to military records.
Pte Walter Stanley Peck, 33072, 8th Battalion Leicestershire Regiment, was killed in action in Belgium on October 1st, 1917. He was aged 24, single and a former employee of the Diamond Foundry, Dallow Road.
Pte Herbert Gerald Bigmore, 203195, 2/5th Battalion Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regiment) was killed in action near Ypres in Belgium on September 26th, 1917.
Pte Harry James Boustred, 235101, 1/4th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment, died of wounds on October 11th, 1917, while being conveyed to a base hospital in France by ambulance train.
Pte Sidney Charles Fensome, 38731, 2/8th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers, was killed in action in Belgium on October 9th, 1917. He had joined the Colours in March 1917 and been in France only since May.
Pte Harry Chalkley, 50129, 8th Battalion Suffolk Regiment, was presumed killed in action on October 13th, 1917, according to a letter from the Front. He had enlisted in the Suffolks in July 1916 and went to France the following November.
Pte Harold Smallbones, 37164, 1st Queen's (Royal West Surrey) Regiment, was killed in action on September 26th, 1917.
Pte Frank (Franklin) Fane, 202749, 1/4th Battalion Dorsetshire Regiment, died in a casualty clearing station in Mesopotamia on October 13th, from severe neck wounds sustained in the British advance on Baghdad. His death had followed a week of intense suffering.
Sapper Frederick Jones, 522869, 225th Field Company Royal Engineers, died just after midnight on October 16th, 1917, after being wounded in the neck and thigh by an aerial bomb a short time earlier on the previous day.
Pte Bertie Hawkes, 88018, 3rd Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, died in the No. 14 General Hospital, Wimereux, France, on October 17th, 1917, suffering from the effects of gas poisoning. He was aged 20 and single.
Pte Ernest Rodell, 14864, 13th Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment, died at Gheluvelt, near Ypres, on October 18th, 1917, from wounds sustained in action. He was aged 23, single and had lived with his parents at 3 Surrey Street, Luton.
Sgt Joseph Charles Shaw, 570856, 17th Battalion London Regiment, was killed in action in East Africa on October 18th, 1917.
Sapper Reed Knight, 628195, 4th Canadian Railway Troops, was killed in action near Nieuport in Belgium on October 19th, 1917. His was a story of a Vancouver boy's romance with a Luton girl that soon turned to tragedy on the battlefield.