Cpl Henry Lewis Hill, 10092, 2nd Battalion Beds Regiment, was killed in France on March 14th, 1916, when fragments of shell entered a cellar in which he and other men were sheltering. A second man was also killed while the remainder escaped unhurt.

Cpl Hill, who was 24, joined the Bedfords in 1912 and was serving with the 2nd Battalion in South Africa when war was declared. He had been in France since October 1914.

John Crawford Cunningham was born in Luton in 1894.

In 1901 aged 6 years old he is living with his family at no 16 Gladstone Avenue.

His father John Christopher is 39 & a travelling drapery & clothing retailer, his mother Clara is 40 & at home looking after John Crawford & his siblings, 12 year old Christopher Angus, 9 year old Margaret Eva, 8 year old Alice Jean & Ronald who is 1.

In 1911 John is living with his family at No 10 Westbourne Road, he is 16 years old & working as a junior accounts clark.

Stoker First Class Charles Higgs, K/7429, was lost when the armed boarding steamer HMS Fauvette hit two mines laid by a German submarine and sank in the Thames estuary, off North Foreland, Kent, on March 9th, 1916. He was aged 25 and one of 14 crew reported missing, believed dead.

The son of James and Elizabeth Higgs, of 230 Wellington Street, Luton, the former labourer joined the Royal Navy on July 21st, 1910. He had served in the Dardanelles from the beginning of naval operations there, serving on HMS Lord Nelson until transferred to the Fauvette.

Pte Thomas John Bunker, 18968, 3rd Battalion Grenadier Guards, was killed in action in France on February 10th, 1916. Using the name John, he was 19 and his home was at 73 Beech Road, Luton.

Previously he lived at London Road Lodge, Stockwood, with parents John and Fanny Bunker and family. His father was gamekeeper to Mrs Crawley, of Stockwood House, for nearly a quarter of a century.

Captain Edward Emil Simeons, 8th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, died on February 17th, 1916, from shell wounds sustained in action near Ypres the previous day. He was aged 22.

Although the second son of Carl and Edith Simeons, of Blyth Road, Bromley, Kent, he had since 1910 lived with his uncle, Thomas Arthur Cawley, principal of the British Gelatine Works in New Bedford Road, Luton, and lived at Lea Dale, New Bedford Road. Edward was an apprentice at the Gelatine Works and there seems to have been a a further family link in that his father was a gelatine merchant.

William James Cowley was born in Rawtenstall, Lancashire in 1893

In 1911 aged 18 he is working as a clerk & junior warehouseman at a straw & felt hat manufactures along his father & living with his family at No 61 Brook Street, Luton.

Trooper Charles William Reginald 'Reggie' Looker, 1236, 1/1st Bedfordshire Yeomanry, was killed in action in France on February 1st, 1916. His body with a bullet wound through the head was discovered in a trench by his younger brother Richard.

Lieut Edmund Wallis Beck, Acting Adjutant of the 8th Bedfordshire Regiment, died of wounds in hospital at Boulogne on January 9th, 1916. He had been seriously wounded near Ypres on December 19th, 1915, while giving warning of a gas attack. He was aged 26, born in Poona, India, on July 27th, 1889.

Before leaving England, Lieut Beck represented his regiment while dining with the King and Queen. He was educated at Bracondale School, Norwich, and Wellingborough, where he was captain of the 1st eleven, and he shot at Bisley for his school.

Pte Horace Charles Day, 15086, 7th Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action in France on January 21st, 1916. He was aged about 21.

Born in Slip End, he was listed in the 1911 Census as a boot shop assistant living with his twice-widowed mother Sophia at Pepperstock. His parents were married in October 1892, but his father Charles died around 1899.

Little was written in the Press about Horace at the time of his death, but he is commemorated on both the Flamstead and Luton war memorials.

Sgt Harry Pestell, 16949, C Company, 7th Bedfords, was killed in action near Fricourt, France, on January 21st, 1916. He was aged 29.

Born in Buckhurst Hill, Essex, in 1887, he had for about 14 years made his home with Ernest and Fanny Barford, who at the time of Harry's death were running a grocery stores at 44 Old Bedford Road, Luton. Harry was working as a grocer's assistant at the shop at the time of the 1911 Census.

Cyclist Henry Albert 'Harry' James, 3164, 47th London Divisional Cyclist Company, was killed in action in action in France on January 21st, 1916.

He was one of 17 employees of the Diamond Foundry in Dallow Road who joined the 17th Battalion London Regiment as a rifleman in September 1914 and transferred to the Cyclist Company when it was formed.

Harry was the only son of Job and Lizzie James, of 2 Wimbourne Road, Luton. He was aged 23.

Company Quartermaster-Sgt Douglas Ritchie, Army Service Corps, died in the Fulham Military Hospital on January 15th, 1916, from double pneumonia.

The 30-year-old Scotsman was the brother-in-law of Charles Cameron, of 51 Belmont Road, Luton, proprietor of Camerons (Luton) Ltd, a printing company based in Cheapside. Douglas Ritchie had been a co-director of the firm until he gave up his business interests to take up aviation. He had gained his pilot's licence before suffering an unfortunate breakdown in health.

Pte George William Rolph, 18924, 2nd Bedfordshire Regiment, is officially listed as killed in action in France on January 15th, 1916. A letter from the battlefield said he was killed by a shell while on sentry duty on January 13th.

An old boy of Queen Square School, he was the son of George and Maria Rolph, of 51 Beech Road, Luton. On leaving school he worked for the British Gelatine Co Ltd in New Bedford Road as a labourer and stayed with them until January 1915, when he enlisted. He was aged 28 and had served for four years in the Territorials.

Pte Stephen George Hare, 8426, 1st Battalion, Beds Regt, was killed in action near Fricourt in France on January 6th, 1916. He was aged 29.

Born in July 1886 at Shillington, he was the son of William (died January 1911) and Emma Hare (nee Redman), who were married in 1872. He had not long finished seven years with the 1st Bedfords in South Africa and other parts of the world when war broke out. He was then working at Skefko and was called up as a reservist in August 1914.

Amos Godbeer Coleman was born in 1884.

In 1905 Amos married Alice Louisa Cheshire in Luton & in 1911 they are living with their 2 year old daughter Lillian Maud Francis in Summer Street, Slip End, Luton. Alice was pregnant with their first son Stanley William Edward. Amos is 27 years old & working as a gardener's labourer.