Pte Richard (Dick) Swift, 58923, 1st Battalion Northants Regiment, was on sentry duty in France when he died from the shock of a shell exploding close to him on October 20th, 1918.
Sec Lieut Reginald Sydney Strange, attached 1st Battalion Northants Regiment, was killed in action at Le Cateau in France on October 17th, 1918. He was single and a month short of his 24th birthday.
He belonged to a Luton family which had traded in the town as drapers and outfitters since 1832. His father Arthur continued the family link to the firm, and in the 1911 Census Reginald was described as a draper's assistant.
Pte Harry Ford, 41898, 1st Battalion Northants Regiment, Machine Gun Section, became the third son lost to his family when he was killed in action in France on September 24th, 1918, a month before his 19th birthday.
An officer wrote to parents John and Emma Ford at 48 Burr Street, Luton: “Your son was killed instantaneously on the morning of September 24th. He was killed by machine gun bullets in the trench which was our final objective, and was buried with several others close by by the battalion chaplain.”
Pte Edward Gatward, 19785, 1st Battalion Northants Regiment, was killed in action in Flanders on or soon after November 15th, 1917. Ten months later, parents George and Sarah Ann Gatward, of 61 Hartley Road, Luton, had heard no news of him but were still hopeful that he was alive.
Widow Rose and her four children Violet, George, Winifred and Phyllis, of 27 Cumberland Street, Luton, had previously received notification that her husband had been wounded earlier in France, on February 17th, 1917.
