Private Joseph Ward

Pte Joseph Ward, 4th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, died on November 21st, 1916, from wounds sustained in action on the Somme four days earlier. He was aged 24.

Being an orphan, he had lived with his married sister, Mrs Alice Gore, for upwards of ten years prior to joining the Ampthill Training Camp a year earlier.

Official notification reached Mrs Gore at her home at 86 Park Road West, Luton, that her brother had sustained gunshot wounds in the right thigh and a fracture of the femur, and was seriously ill in Dannes-Camiers General Hospital in France.

Later Mrs Gore received telegrams from the Records Office telling her she might visit her brother and she set off on November 22nd. She was on the boat train at Victoria Station in London when she received a telephone message informing her that her brother had died at 1.40 the previous day and her journey was therefore unnecessary. He would be buried in the British Cemetery with military honours.

Prior to enlistment, Pte Ward was an employee of Hat Materials Ltd, 10 Cardigan Street, Luton. He also regularly attended the King Street Pleasant Sunday Afternoon Brotherhood.