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 Charles Richard Mellor, 656450, 82nd Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, died on August 19th, 1918, in the 12th General Hospital, Rouen, in France, as a result of having been gassed in action. He had been married only four months.
Pte Thomas Alfred Cook, 204219, 1st Herts Regiment, died in a casualty clearing station in France on August 20th, 1918, from wounds sustained in action the previous day.
L-Cpl Alfred Thomas William Bird, 97515, 47th Battalion Machine Gun Corps, was killed in action in France on August 22nd, 1918. He had been back in France only ten days after being home on leave.
Pte Frederick Leslie Bland, 77681, 13th Battalion Royal Fusiliers (County of London Regiment), was killed in action in France on August 23rd, 1918.
Pte Harold Wilfred Shadbolt, 92960, 14 Platoon, D Company, 2/4th London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), was killed in action in France on August 24th, 1918. He was aged 18 and single.
Pte John Vincent Blackburn, 20731, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, died at Gezaincourt in France on August 24th, 1918, from wounds sustained in action the previous night. He was three weeks short of his 21st birthday.
Pte George Shackleton, 41891, 13th Battalion Essex Regiment, died at Tournai in France on March 16th, 1918, from intestinal catarrh while a prisoner of the Germans. Parents Joseph John and Elizabeth Shackleton, of 8 Stanley Street, Luton, learned of his fate six months later.
Cpl Frederick Harry Shackleton, 25435, 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action at Fricourt in France on August 25th, 1918, two months after first going into action. He was aged 23.
Pte Percy Henry Shedd, 248112, 2/2nd Battalion London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), was killed in action in France on August 26th, 1918. He was aged 25.
Pte Archibald ('Archie') Marshall, 47728, 14th Battalion Welsh Regiment, was killed in action in France, on August 22nd, 1918, less than three weeks before his 21st birthday.
L-Cpl Hubert Edley Carrington, 60126, 26th Battalion Royal Fusiliers, was killed in action on September 20th, 1917. But it was a year before the War Office confirmed his death on the Menin Road, near Ypres, to widow Ethel at 98 Cambridge Street, Luton.
Able Seaman Claud Elwyn Corrin, R/5720, Hawke Battalion, Royal Naval Voluntary Reserve, was reported by the Admiralty to have been killed in action on August 25th, 1918. He had suffered being gassed in the spring of that year.
Pte Aubrey Chance, 49556, 1/1st Battalion Cambridgeshire Regiment, was killed instantly in action when hit by a shell during fighting in France on August 26th, 1918. He was aged 19 and single.
Perhaps the oldest member of the local Territorial and Volunteer units, Mr Joseph Theodore Gething, of 4 Henry Street, Luton, died suddenly at home on August 27th, 1918, as the result of a severe attack of pneumonia. He was 67.
Sec-Lieut Alfred Melbourne ('Chum') Coate, 15th Battery, 36th Brigade Royal Field Artillery, third son of the nine children of Canon Harry Coate, Vicar of St Matthew's Church, Luton, and his Australian-born wife Henrietta Mercy Coate, was killed at an observation post during a battle north of Alb
Pte Thomas Orchard, 6260, 23th Battalion Middlesex Regiment, was reported missing on August 20th, 1918, and later listed as killed in action on August 22nd. He was aged 33 and married with a daughter.
Pte Arthur Samuel Victor Long, 22461, 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action in France on August 29th, 1918.
Pte Arthur Jesse Little, 69011, 1st Battalion Devonshire Regiment, was killed in action in France on August 30th, 1918. He was aged 20.
L-Cpl Reginald William Wiley, 78463, 4th Battalion London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), was killed in action in France on August 31st, 1918. He was aged 19 and single.
Pte Edward Amos ('Ted') Perry, 39940, London Regiment (1st Surrey Rifles), died in a casualty clearing station in France on September 2nd, 1918, from wounds sustained in action.
L-Cpl Edward Stanley Davis, 170, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action in France on September 2nd, 1918. The 35-year-old was the only son of aged widowed mother Margaret, who lived at the rear of 23 Duke Street, Luton.
Pte James Barnard Watkins, 11021, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, died on September 3rd, 1918, from wounds sustained in action at Gezaincourt in France. He had returned from home leave only a week earlier, and had crossed over from Dover on August 29th.
Sgt Frederick William Dawzie Rowley MM, 6535, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action during the advance on Bapaume on August 21st, 1918. Born in Luton in 1880, he had lived in the Middlesex area since serving in the Boer War and had completed almost 21 years in the Army.
L-Cpl Charles Horace West, 40645, 2nd Battalion South Wales Borderers, was presumed killed in action on April 11th, 1918.
Pte Hugh Cumberland, 51175, 4th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action in France on September 5th, 1918. He was aged 19.
Born in Leagrave on March 26th, 1899, he was one of four sons of John and Eleanor Jane Cumberland, of 89 Marsh Road, Leagrave.
Pte Edward Thomas Gooch, 36023, 8th Battalion Gloucester Regiment, was killed in action while serving with a Lewis Gun team in France on September 6th, 1918. He was aged 19 and single.
Pte George Thomas Janes, 79040, 1/7th Durham Light Infantry, died from dysentery in the Crossen prisoner of war camp in Germany on September 6th, 1918. He had been reported captured at Maizy in France on May 27th.
Pte Harold Stuart Lee, 73494, 23rd Brigade Royal Fusiliers, was killed in action in France on September 7th, 1918. His widowed mother Olive, living at Marsh Farmhouse, was informed that he had been shot through the heart by a German sniper.
Sgt Edward Norton, 277640, 15th Battalion Durham Light Infantry, was killed in action in France on September 10th, 1918. He had been in France only five weeks, was married and his widow was residing at 22 Pondwicks Road, Luton.
Cpl George Charles Wood, 44637, 9th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers, died of wounds in France on September 10th, 1918. He was married, his widow, Lilian Maud, living at 1 Pretoria Villas, Midland Road [now Mostyn Road], Leagrave.
Pte George Jack Bacchus, 57178, 12th North Staffordshire (Prince of Wales) Regiment, was killed in action in Flanders on September 12th, 1918. He left a widow and four children at 3 Burr Street, Luton.
Pte Frederick Warren Rogers, 2nd Battalion London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), was killed in action in France on September 17th, 1918.
Pte Herbert Abrams, 14839, 7th Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment, was killed in action in France on September 18th, 1918.
Pte Frank Rowley, 86184, 13th Royal Fusiliers, was killed in action in France on September 18th, 1918. He was aged 34 and had worked as a coach and motor trimmer at Vauxhall Motors.
Pte Benjamin McDonald, 30131, The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment), was killed in action in France on September 21st, 1918. He had joined up at the age of 19 and had been in France only five weeks.
Gunner William Pearce, 956450, A Battery, 78th Brigade Royal Field Artillery (Signalling Training Centre), was serving with the Army of Occupation on the Rhine following the 1918 Armistice when he died from pneumonia in the 42nd Stationary Hospital in Germany on May 19th, 1919.
Pte Frederick Horace Goodship, 41478, 12th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles, was killed in action in France on April 15th, 1918. It was not until August 1919 that widow Dorothy was officially informed that it was presumed he had died on that date.
Pte Bert (Bertie) Clarke, 96779, 2nd Battalion Middlesex Regiment, was reported missing, later killed in action, in France on May 27th, 1918. He was one of three sons of widow Mary Ann Clarke, of 338 Hitchin Road, Luton to have served and the second to die.
Cpl George Clarke, 240673, 1/5th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment, died of wounds in France on October 29th, 1917. He was one of three sons of widow Mary Ann Clarke, of 338 Hitchin Road, Luton to have served and the first to die.
The death while serving in Russia of Pte George Alfred Fensome, 65103, 6th Battalion Yorkshire Regiment, on August 31st, 1919, was described by the War Office in a letter to his parents in Luton as “accidental” - without giving further details beyond notice of his death.