Pte Albert Ernest Bithrey, 41546, 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action in France on July 1st, 1918, according to military records.

However his lieutenant wrote to Albert's mother in Luton: “On the night of 29th June he was acting as platoon gunner, and sitting next to me when a shell pitched on his packs and killed him instantly. His body was brought down and buried in a cemetery behind the lines, and a proper memorial has been put up to his memory.”

Albert was born in Islington, London, in 1898, the son of Ellen and the late Edward Bithrey. By 1911 schoolboy Albert and his mother, plus brother Edward and sister Winifred, were living at 192 North Street, Luton.