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 Alfred Ewart Dean, 32422, 7th Battalion Norfolk Regiment, was killed in action at Gonnelieu, France, on November 20th, 1917, at the start of the Battle of Cambrai. He was aged 19.
Pte George Leslie Wooding, 20953, 8th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action on November 20th, 1917, at the start of the Battle of Cambrai. He had twice previously been wounded and also escaped an air raid.
Driver Horace Ward, 124232, 91st Brigade Royal Field Artillery, was killed in action while taking ammunition to the firing line in Flanders on October 8th, 1917. He was given a battlefield funeral with full military honours
Pte William Hillyard, 350282, 15th Battalion Highland Light Infantry, was killed in action at Cambrai on November 29th, 1917. He was at first reported wounded.
Pte Percy Oliver, 60380, 11th Battalion Royal Fusiliers, was killed in action in Flanders on August 10th, 1917.
He was the son of Amos and Eleanor Oliver, of 311 Hitchin Road, Luton. The 1911 Census records him as a 15-year-old general store assistant.
Pte Charles Thomas Wallis, 47794, 14th Battalion Welsh Regiment, was killed in action in France on December 8th, 1917. He was aged 20 and single.
Sgt Arthur Percy Wilson DCM, 9492, 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action in Flanders on December 8th, 1917. He was aged 29 and single.
Pte Harry Titmus, 18602, 7th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action in Flanders on December 9th, 1917. He was aged 40 and left a widow and eight children living at Sundon.
Farrier Sgt Thomas Wiseman, 47226, 18th (Queen Mary's Own) Hussars, was killed in action in France on November 21st, 1917. Born in Luton, he was aged 33 and had married, his wife living In Andover, Hampshire.
Pte Richard John Frederick Comporo, G/14521, 2nd Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment, was killed in action in Flanders on November 23rd, 1917. He was aged 19.
Sapper George Frederick Warner, 524478, 84th Field Company Royal Engineers, was killed in action at Cambrai in Fl;anders on December 2nd, 1917. He was aged 29, married and had three children.
Gunner Albert Snoxell, 286028, 65th Siege Battery Royal Garrison Artillery, died in Flanders on December 15th, 1917, from gunshot wounds. He was aged 36.
Driver Stanley Fensome, 124499, Royal Field Artillery, died in hospital in Palestine on December 2nd, 1917, as the result of an infection. He was aged 22.
Second-Lieut Frank Hampson, 3rd Battalion The King's (Liverpool) Regiment, was killed in action on November 30th, 1917. He met his death while cheering his men on.
Pte Frederick Ernest Wiles, 81053, 2nd Battalion Royal Fusiliers, died in France on November 22nd, 1917, from gunshot wounds to the head. He was aged 36 and left a widow and a 12-year-old son at 49 Oak Road, Luton.
Pte George Scrivener, G/10241, 7th Battalion The Buffs (East Kent) Regiment, died on April 21st, 1917, while a prisoner of the Germans. He had developed inflammation of the bowel after being captured on November 18th, 1916.
Cpl Charles George Marsh, 201398, 1/4th Battalion Norfolk Regiment, was killed in action in Palestine on December 11th, 1917.
Pte Sidney Medcalf, 32647, 1/4th Battalion Norfolk Regiment, was killed in action near Jerusalem on December 15th, 1917. He was aged 19.
Pte Walter Alfred Horwood, 202801, 11th Battalion Essex Regiment, was killed in action in France on December 3rd, 1917. He was aged 39.
Pte William Pedder, 68552, Royal Fusiliers, was killed in action in Flanders on November 30th, 1917. He had been reported wounded and missing on that date, leading to his widow Kate appealing in The Luton News in January 1918 for any information about him.
Pte Harold Stewart Lawson, 201403, 1/4th Battalion Norfolk Regiment, was killed in action in Palestine on December 11th, 1917. He was aged 19.
Rifleman Joseph Cogans, 5556, 10th Battalion King's Royal Rifles, was reported missing, presumed killed, in Flanders on November 30th, 1917.
Pte John Thomas Brown, 10238, 7th Battalion The Buffs (East Kent Regiment), was reported missing, later presumed killed, on August 3rd, 1917. Six months later his widow asked, through The Luton News, for any information about her husband.
Regimental Quarter Master Sgt Edward Scott, 200233 (ex-3458), 1/5th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, died in hospital in Jerusalem from pneumonia on January 12th, 1918, during the Palestine campaign.
Regimental Quarter Master Sgt Edward Scott, 200233 (ex-3458), 1/5th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, died in hospital in Jerusalem from pneumonia on January 12th, 1918, during the Palestine campaign.
Signaller Cyril Osborne Smith, 30387, 1/1st Bedfordshire Yeomanry, was killed by a shell on January 15th, 1918, while in action in France. He was aged 21 and a son of Frank William and Annie Elizabeth Smith, of 3 Salisbury Road, Luton.
Pte Henry Jasper Broome, 73133, 16th Battalion Middlesex Regiment, was taken prisoner by the Germans at Cambrai on November 30th, 1917.
Floral tributes with the words "A Hero of Mons" were borne on the Union flag-covered coffin of Driver Charles Mayhew, 41932, 8th Reserve Battery, Royal Field Artillery, when he was buried with full military honours at Biscot Churchyard in January 1918.
Percy met a tragic end, in a house in Luton.
Billeted in town whilst serving with 6th Reserve Brigade. Royal Field Artillery; for whatever reason, he commited suicide.
He hailed from East Ham, married to Flora Perkins, father of two children
Pte Horace Karl Leaney, 30858, Bedfordshire Yeomanry, died at Shoreham-on-Sea Military Hospital in Sussex from pneumonia on February 1st, 1918. He was wounded in action in May 1917 and had been in hospital ever since. He was buried at Holy Trinity Churchyard, Biscot, on February 8th.
Gunner John Barrow Dunmill, 163556, 110th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery, died from wounds in the No 5 Casualty Clearing Station, France, on February 2nd, 1918. He was aged 32.
Pte John Rayner, 33874, 4th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action near Cambrai on January 12th, 1918. Born at Barton Bendish, Norfolk, he was a resident of Luton before moving to live in Leighton Buzzard.
Pte Ernest William Richardson, 39791, 5th Battalion Northants Regiment, was killed in action at Cambrai on November 30th, 1917.
Pte Samuel Charles Wiseman, G/28641, 2nd Garrison Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers, died from pneumonia in the 28th General Hospital in Salonika on February 17th, 1918.
Second Lieut Alfred Hugh Galbraith, 57th Training Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, died in a flying accident near Abbassia in Egypt on February 24th, 1918. He was just short of his 19th birthday.
Gunner Frank Price, 124840, 379 Siege Battery Royal Garrison Artillery, was fatally wounded in action in Palestine on February 22nd, 1918. He was aged 31, married and had two children.
Pte Horace Arthur ('Jack') Clark, 12427, 6th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, died of wounds in a Canadian clearing station in Flanders on February 28th, 1918. He had previously served in the trenches for three years without injury.
Pte Cyril Almond, 33161, 6th Battalion Leicestershire Regiment, was killed in action in France on May 3rd, 1917. He was reported missing after the Battle of Arras, but it was nine anxious months before his parents at Chiltern Green received the official intimation of his death.
Pte Albert Edward Munt, 269647, 1st Battalion Herts Regiment, was killed in action on July 31st, 1917. He was reported missing from that date, but his widow was still awaiting definite news in the following March.
Pte Cecil Moore Coombs, 45788, 12th Battalion Suffolk Regiment, was killed in action in France. He was reported missing on January 6th, 1918, and was still so listed by his mother when the Book of Life was created at Luton Parish Church in 1919.