Not precisely the Romeo and Juliet script, but a tragically moving story nonetheless of two young Luton sweethearts in World War One.

Jack Copley was a Yorkshire lad who came to live in Luton with his father in Old Bedford Road. Here he met 18-year-old Elsie Ritchie, a girl very much in love with him.

But Jack had to leave with his regiment, the 7th Bedfords in October 1915. Parting was not such sweet sorrow for Elsie, who took her own life by drowning in Wardown Lake, a picture of Jack sewn to her underclothing, near her heart.

How Jack took the news, we do not know. But on February 17th, 1917, he too died - under shell fire while acting as a despatch runner.

The stories of the two sweethearts were not linked in the Press at the time. But now we can bring them together. Just following the links on the names above for the two stories.