Sub-Lieut Eric William Squires, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, was killed in action in the battle of Ancre on the Somme on November 13th, 1916. He was aged 24.
The son of hat manufacturer James Squires and his wife Emily, of The Mount, Hart Hill, Luton, Eric joined the public schools battalion of the Naval Reserve on November 11th, 1914. The unit was the only one allowed to use both naval and military uniform. He was in training at the Crystal Palace and obtained his commission in July 1915.
Lieut Edmund Wallis Beck, Acting Adjutant of the 8th Bedfordshire Regiment, died of wounds in hospital at Boulogne on January 9th, 1916. He had been seriously wounded near Ypres on December 19th, 1915, while giving warning of a gas attack. He was aged 26, born in Poona, India, on July 27th, 1889.
Before leaving England, Lieut Beck represented his regiment while dining with the King and Queen. He was educated at Bracondale School, Norwich, and Wellingborough, where he was captain of the 1st eleven, and he shot at Bisley for his school.
Pte Charles Whelpton Few, 1889, 1/1st Eastern Mounted Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, died on October 19th, 1915, from dysentery while on board ship in the Mediterranean.
He was one of three sons of Great Northern Railway stationmaster Thomas Henry Few [born in Montreal, Canada], of Station House, Bute Street, and Hyde House, Hart Hill, Luton. He joined the Eastern Mounted Brigade Field Ambulance, RAMC, after the outbreak of war.