Able Seaman Claud Elwyn Corrin, R/5720, Hawke Battalion, Royal Naval Voluntary Reserve, was reported by the Admiralty to have been killed in action on August 25th, 1918. He had suffered being gassed in the spring of that year.

He had joined the Navy in the summer of 1917 and was posted to the Hawke Battalion.

Born at Rushden on the Isle of Man in August 1889, he was manager of the branch of chemists Duberley & White at 215 Dunstable Road. He was lodging at 20 Dunstable Road.

Able Seaman Charles Johnson, RN (J/9150), was a man with family living in Luton who was lost when HMS Vanguard sank following an internal explosion while at anchor at Scapa Flow on July 9th, 1917. His body was never recovered for burial.

Born in Stretton on Fosse, Warwickshire, in 1894, he joined the Navy in July 1910 as a boy sailor, probably before parents George and Marjorie Johnson moved to Luton. They were living at 24 Ash Road at the time of his death.

Seaman Henry Shedrick Joseph Hill, 19, son of Henry and Mary Ann Hill, of 94 Cobden Street, Luton, was reported lost in the Battle of Jutland while serving on HMS Turbulent (sunk).

Naval records reveal, however, that he was wounded and taken as a prisoner of war before being repatriated in 1918 and invalided from the service. He married Gertrude Currie in Luton in 1919.

Seaman George O'Brien, J26306, HMS St Vincent, died on his ship in the North Sea on November 15th, 1914. He was aged 18.

The second of (Edwin) James and Elizabeth O'Brien's six children, he belonged to a much-travelled family that lived at 65 Warwick Road, Luton, in 1914. His father was born in Newton Abbot, Devon, his mother came from Pembrokeshire and he was born at Worcester on July 30th, 1896. His two brothers and three sisters were born variously in Stantonbury (Bucks), Birmingham, Rugby, Leicester and Yiewsley, Middlesex.

Details imported from Luton Absent Voters list 1918

James Clarke of Tavistock St, Dunstable served 12 years with the Royal Navy before transferring to the Royal Navy Reserve in 1908. When WW1 commenced the thirty six year old  was called up to  to serve aboard HMS Hogue which was part of a patrol of armoured cruisers in the North Sea. These old slow  ships were very vulnerable to a raid by modern German surface ships and the patrol was nicknamed the "live bait squadron".

William was born in Enfield, Essex on 12 November 1894.

In 1901 he is living in Butterfield Green, Stopsley with his widowed father, William, who is a scaffold builder. He has an 11 year old brother Herbert, 5 year old sister called Topsy & a sister Edith who is 3. His father employed a housekeeper at the time called Elizabeth Smith who is living-in with her 9 month old daughter Gladys.

Details imported from Luton Absent Voters list 1918

Details imported from Luton Absent Voters list 1918

Details imported from Luton Absent Voters list

Details imported from Luton Absent Voters list

Details imported from Luton Absent Voters list
Prembrokeshire Division Royal Navy

Details imported from Luton Absent Voters list

Details imported from Luton Absent Voters list

Details imported from Luton Absent Voters list and the National Roll of the Great War (Section V)

The National Roll (mostly submitted by families) describes his service as follows: he joined the service prior to the war and was posted to HMS Commonwealth in which ship he served in the Dardanelles in 1915 and with the Grand Fleet in the North Sea. He was serving on HMS Russell when she was blown up by a mine on April 17th 1916 but he was fortunately saved. He was still serving in 1920 and holds the 1914-15 Star, and the General service and Victory Medals.