Two cousins - one serving with the Royal Sussex Regiment and the other with Royal Scots - had met by chance in Luton while on Christmas leave in 1908 and were surprised to discover they were both in the Army. Shortly after the outbreak of war, Jack, from Toddington, and Edward Hobbs, from Luton, again acted in tandem, receiving commissions as second-lieutenants with a few weeks.

On December 17th, 1914, The Luton News reported that L-Cpl Jack Hobbs (pictured left), who was serving with the 58th Northamptons and was then on leave in Luton with his brother-in-law and sister Mr and Mrs G. W. Smith at 32 Stuart Street, had just gained his promotion to the 1st Royal Scots, "not for service in the field but through application and industry".

The son of a Toddington butcher, Mr William Hobbs, he had attended the National School at Toddington. After his father died he worked for Mr Robert Tomson, of Bedford House, New Bedford Road, Luton, before being employed at the Liberal Club in Manchester Street, Luton.

In 1908 he enlisted in the 2nd Royal Scots, transferring to the 1st Battalion when it received orders for foreign service in India. By then he had gained his 3rd class Army Certificate at Edinburgh, and while in India won both his 2nd and 1st class certificates. In November 1914 he returned from India to learn of his promotion.

Cousin Edward was serving with the 58th Northamptons when he learned of his promotion with the Royal Sussex Regiment in November 1914. He had been stationed at Colchester until the Northants went to Malta for four years, acting as Regimental interpreter for Maltese. He then went to Alexandria in Egypt where he was promoted first to lance-corporal and then corporal. In June 1914 he went to Cairo and passed an examination in Arabic, bringing his total of certificates to 11.

Mr J. Hobbs, a relative, sent The Luton News a letter from the Premier Hat Factory in Grote Street, Adelaide, South Australia, with confirmation of the stories of the Hobbs cousins. He also wrote that on January 20th, 1915, the War Office advised him that Edward Hobbs was in hospital in Torquay suffering from frozen feet.

Mr Hobbs said the cousins' fathers were both old Volunteers, as he himself had been. He was in C Company Luton Corps at the time of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee in 1887 and took part in a big review at Aldershot. He was also one of the guard of honour for the late King Edward VII on one of his visits to Luton as Prince of Wales in the 1880s.

[The Luton News, December 17th, 1914 and March 11th, 1915]