Second-Lieut Meredyth Robert Owen Williams, 25th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers, was killed in action in France on March 14th, 1917. He was the younger son of Luton Alderman Herbert Owen Williams, of Farley Lynches, Castle Street [now Farley Hill]. He was a month short of his 23rd birthday.

His commanding officer wrote to parents Herbert and Edith Jane Williams that their son was manning a support trench with his platoon during a German raid at about five o'clock in the morning. The gun fire was terribly heavy, and Lieut Williams was killed by a bursting shell.

Sgt William Ellingham, one of the first Lutonians to be awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, was killed in action on the Somme on August 18th, 1916. He was a son of Arthur and Annie Ellingham, of 8 Jubilee Street, Luton, and served in the 1st Northumberland Fusiliers.

In November 1915 Sgt Ellingham, then a lance corporal, came to England on leave and married Mabel Louisa Ward from Castleford in the Yorkshire town on November 5th. He had been stationed at Pontefract, Yorks, in 1911 and it was while there he probably met Mabel.