Pte Reginald Walter Pakes, 60184, 32nd Battalion Royal Fusiliers, was killed in action in Belgium on June 7th, 1917. He was aged 22.
His mother Harriet Mary Pakes, of 31 Malvern Road, Luton, was first informed from London that he son had been wounded, but later told in a letter from the captain of her son's company that he had been killed in action.
Councillor and former Mayor of Luton Albert Arthur Oakley died on June 24th, 1917, following an accident in which he was thrown from his pony and trap in Ash Road, Luton, three days previously.
He was aged 63, twice married, had five sons and a daughter and lived at Hillcroft, High Town Road, Luton. A Primitive Methodist in religion and a Radical in politics, he had co-founded the well-respected grocery and provisions business of Oakley Bros, of 6 Chapel Street and 85 High Town Road.
Rifleman Leonard Roland Donne, 37031, King's Royal Rifles, died at Dormstadt in Germany as a prisoner of war on June 23rd, 1917. He was captured after being wounded in action on April 23rd.
After twice being rejected, Rifleman Donne joined the KRR in November 1916, and went to France soon after Christmas following two months in training at Wimbledon.
Initial reports home said Rifleman Donne, aged 25, had been treated at a British dressing station, where his wounds were not considered to be serious. Trace of him had been lost after he left there.
Pte Frederick Goodman, 14840, 13th Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment, died on June 20th, 1917, shortly after admission to a casualty clearing station with battlefield wounds. He was aged 22.
He enlisted soon after the outbreak of war and had been in France only 11 months when the news reached his mother Annie Goodman (nee Saunders) and grandmother, who were living at 9 Surrey Street, Luton. He had a brother, Sidney John, and sister, Clara Anne, living at 9 Wenlock Street, at the time.
Pte Frederick (Fred) Davis, 27629, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action at Arras in France on June 17th, 1917. He was aged 21.
He was born in his mother's home town of Croydon, Surrey, in 1896, and regimental records say he resided at Leagrave. Unfortunately, his death is totally unrecorded in Luton newspapers, although he is included on the Luton Roll of Honour with an address of 19 Tavistock Street, Luton - the post-war address of parents Henry (Harry) and Annie Davis.
Pte Joseph Summerfield, 15366, 7th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action in France on June 17th, 1917. He had enlisted at the outbreak of war and spent two years in France without leave.
Pte Henry (Harry) Kightley, 50167, 12th Battalion Suffolk Regiment, was killed in action in France on June 16th, 1917. He was aged 37. Press mention of his death appears to have been confined to a brief family announcement.
His name appears on the Luton Roll of Honour without an address, but the 1911 Census reveals that he was a house decorator then living with his widowed mother Charlotte at The Firs, Hazelbury Crescent, Luton, and that he was born in 1880.
Pte William Francis Daniel Everett, 202664, 7th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, had been in France only nine weeks when he died on June 14th, 1917, from wounds sustained in action. He was aged 25.
Writing to widow Ethel Mabel Everett at 28 Ashton Street, Luton, chaplain the Rev C. O. R. Wormald said Pte Everett was brought into the 49th Casualty Clearing Station seriously wounded. Everything possible was done to save his life, but he passed away on June 14th. The writer had ministered to him in his last hours and he thought there was not much suffering.
L-Cpl Sidney Thomas Andrews, 33003, 8th Battalion Leicestershire Regiment, was listed killed in action in France on May 3rd, 1917, after at first being reported missing.
A letter from Capt J. Abbott to widow Alice at 93 Butlin Road, Luton, said nothing had been heard of her husband since he went into action on May 3rd. Several men of the platoon were cut off from the reminder of the company during the attack and were taken prisoner. The writer said he could only conclude at that stage that L-Cpl Andrews was also a prisoner in German hands.
Pte Arthur Carter, 203264, 1/4th Battalion York & Lancaster Regiment, was reported missing following a raid on June 11th, 1917, according to a letter writer at the Front. Officially his death is recorded as having happened on June 12th.
"I am very much afraid he is killed," said the writer, "as under the circumstances it is very unlikely he was taken prisoner. It was impossible to bring back our dead owing to the number of wounded."
For two-and-a-half anxious years, the family of Pte Reuben Joseph Wilmot, 10491, 2nd Battalion Border Regiment, knew nothing of his fate. Finally, in June 1917, his half-sister Ada Elizabeth, then living at 118 Chapel Street, Luton, learned that he had been taken as a prisoner of war by the Germans near Ypres on October 26th, 1914, and sadly had died from an old bullet wound while still in captivity on March 17th, 1917.
Gunner Herbert Butterfield, 101907, 217th Siege Battery Royal Garrison Artillery, was killed in action in France on June 5th, 1917. He was aged 34.
He had joined up in July 1916 and went to France the following January after nerly seven months of training. The last that his widow Rose Ellen, of 109 Cowper Street, Luton, had heard from him was in May 1917 while his battery was resting.
Archibald George Whitelock was born in Canning Town, London in 1886, 1 of 9 children born to William & Elizabeth.
On 9th September 1914 whilst living at 91 Ridgeway Road, Luton, Archibald enlisted into the Royal Engineers (523029) as an electrician. He took his electricians' test with the Biscot Road works for Commercial Cars. He later worked for Vauxhall Motors.
William Alfred Carter was born in Luton in 1878, 1 of 11 children born to Alfred & Harriet.
In 1911 he is living with his 61 year old parents at 52 Dumfries Street he is 33 years old & William & his father are both working as general labourers.
On 6th July 1915 William joined the Army Service Corps as a horse driver. On 15th February 1916 William was posted, as part of the British Expeditionary Force, to France but shortly after arriving he became ill with an ulceration of the stomach.