Lance-Corporal Alfred Ward, 5697, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action near Wulvergem in Belgium on January 31st, 1915. He was aged 24.
Generally known as Samson, he was the son of Robert and Mary Ward, of 3 East Avenue, Park Street, Luton. His death had been mentioned in letters from friends at the front before the family received official news. They were not told by the War Office where he had been killed.
Pte Stanley George Crawley, died in a hospital near Shrewsbury on September 19th, 1918, seven months after contracting a complicated illness while serving on the Eastern Front and being sent home.
When war broke out Stanley joined the 1st/5th Bedfordshire Regiment. On mobilisation he was found to be a home service man, and was not with the battalion at Gallipoli. He eventually joined them in 1916 and saw active service. The climate in the East brought on his illness early in 1918and two weeks before his death he arrived at the hospital near Shrewsbury.
