Pte Stanley George Halfhead, 18925, 4th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action on the Somme on February 11th, 1917. He was aged 21.

He was the son of widow Mrs Kate Halfhead, of 20 Wood Street, Luton - his father, school caretaker George, had died in 1906. Prior to enlistment in February 1915, Stanley had worked at hat manufacturers Haye & Co, George Street. He was an old boy of Waller Street School, and was Assistant Scoutmaster in the local battalion of Boy Scouts.

In his last letter to his mother Stanley wrote: "We have been in the trenches over a week and it has been awful cold work, but I am very thankful to be saved through it. I have had some very narrow escapes, but have returned safely.

"We have been living on frozen grub for three or four days. Even the bread was frozen, and your breath very nearly froze as it left your mouth. Still, we have got over it. I have been up nearly all night, going to the rear, so I have just lit a fire and am writing this before breakfast.

"Ah well! I shall be glad to get a sleep in the old bed again, after being crowded in German dug-outs. They are a marvel! Some of them are a long way under the ground, and contain a lot of little rooms all over the place."

His last unfulfilled hope was that "we shall soon be having a good time together again".

There was more sorrow for the Halfhead family in November 1918 when another son, Cyril Robert, aged 16½, died in the influenza epidemic.