Pte Percy Impey, 9485, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed by a rifle grenade at Hill 60 on June 12th, 1915. He had been with the Bedfordshires for five years, returning from South Africa with them when war broke out.

The 23-year-old was born in Flamstead and was living with his widowed father Henry, brothers William and Harry and sisters Elizabeth (Lizzie) and Annie in London Road, Markyate, at the time of the 1901 Census. During his time with the Bedfords he was a member of the regimental football team and was the regiment's champion jumper.

Pte W. East, 8960, in the machine gun section of the 1st Bedfords, wrote both to father Henry and the now married Lizzie [wed to John Walter Odell in 1902] at 14 Wimbourne Road, Luton: "Percy got killed on 12th June. He was sitting on some sandbags when a rifle grenade came over from the German trenches and he got hit in the head and put him straight. I went to see him, and then they took him away to bury him, and I know the very spot where he lies.

"It made me cry when I saw who it was, as he was a very good chap in the company. He was liked by all who knew him, and they miss him very much. I was talking to him in the morning, and we had a nice chat together. I went to fetch some water so that I could make some tea, and he asked me if I would bring him some. I did so, and that was the last I saw of him till they came and told me he was killed. He died like a man and a true British soldier."

Percy's father, who had been a farm labourer, died in 1917. His mother Louisa, a straw worker, had died in 1897 at the age of 39.

At the time of Percy's death brother Harry (b 1885) was a lance-corporal serving in France and eldest brother William (b 1879) was with the 3rd Bedfordshires at Landguard, Suffolk. Both had been home for spells suffering from frostbite.