Ernest W.T. Groom was a member of the 2nd Battallion The Bedfordshire Regiment, and was killed on the 11th July 1916 during the attack on Trones Wood.

The advance started at 3:10 AM, and the advance was not spotted until the men were 400 yards from the enemy. At this moment, machine guns opened fire on the men and the battle began. The woodlands were so dense and the night so dark, that it became impossible to see more than 5 yards ahead.

Private Groom died alongside 5 Officers and 239 Other ranks.

George (jnr) Henry Webb was the son of George Webb, a dentist of Westbourne Road, Luton, and his wife Elizabeth.

At the age of 17 years and 2 months, on 5 September 1911, George Henry Webb enlisted for 4 years in the Royal Army Medical Corps (Territorial Army) at Harlow, and served in WW1 as a Private. He was attached to the Essex Royal Horse Artillery as part of the Field Ambulance.

Bernard Vincent Webb was the son of George Webb, a dentist of Westbourne Road, Luton, and his wife Elizabeth.

Bernard was just 17 when he enlisted with the Bedfordshire Regiment in September 1914. He told the recruiting officer he was 19!

Whilst serving with the 3rd Battalion Munster Fusiliers he was wounded at Gallipoli, on the Ottoman Peninsula, just over a year later with a gun shot wound to the hand.

Stuart John Webb was a son of George Webb, a dentist of Westbourne Road, Luton, and his wife Elizabeth.

Stuart was 21 when he was conscripted into the Northamptonshire Regiment in 1916, service number 45954. He was posted to France in 1917, where he was almost immediately transferred to the Manchester Regiment, service number 42359.

He was wounded in action on October 8 1917, and was transferred to the military hospital at Etaple where a few days later he succumbed to his wounds. He is buried at Etaples Military Cemetary, Pas de Calais, France.  Grave reference: XXX.F.21A.

Cyril was a patient at Wardown V.A.D. Hospital, and was discharged from the army in May 1916 due to sickness, under Kings regulations 392 (xvi).

From The Luton News 27th July 1916.  ANOTHER HERO GONE.  Well known both in his native Luton and in Ampthill and district, Pte Joseph Payne, son of Mrs E Payne of 15 Inkerman Street, Luton, has met his death in France after being nearly twelve months in the fighting line, joining the Army soon after war broke out.  He trained at Ampthill, where he made many friends and was drafted to a battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment.  On July 1st, just after the commencement of the big advance, he was wounded and a notification has now been received that he died from his wounds on July 16th.  Privat

From The Luton News 13.7.1916.  SAVED BY HIS HELMET. Well known Luton Footballer's Experience. How the British Soldier Goes into Action.  Despite his wounds, Pte H C Preece, 2nd Battalion, Beds Regt., writes us a very cheery letter from a V.A.D. hospital at Broadstairs. Before joining the colours, Pte Preece was well known among footballers in Luton as secretary of the Ivydale F.C his home being at 207 North Street.

Matthew Millar Little was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland in 1889.  At the outbreak of the First World War he was a coal miner but joined the Scottish Rifles (Reserves).  This is a photograph taken in 1914, with Matthew's wife, Elizabeth, and eldest son, Alexander.  Private Little's Great Granddaughter is a Lutonian and has worked for Luton Libraries for the past 12 years.

From the Luton News 13th July 1916.  OLD CELTIC FOOTBALLER KILLED IN THE GREAT BATTLE. Among the families plunged into sorrow in Luton as the result of the big battle begun on July 1st, is that of Mr and Mrs C T Armstrong, whose son, Pte Frederick Armstrong of the 7th Beds Regiment, has died from wounds received in that action.

From the Luton News 13th July 1916.  DEATH OF PRIVATE CUSTANCE. Escaped in Battle - succumbed to Illness.   The sad news has just been received of the death in Egypt of Private Henry Custance, of the 1/5th Bedfords, aged 21 years, and son of Mr and Mrs Custance of 15 Kings Road. Luton.

From the Luton News dated 25th May 1916.  Private Frederick Gordon Smart of Harcourt Street Luton has just been wounded after serving for nine months with the Bedfords in France.  He received a gunshot in the right arm.

Frederick was the son of Frederick and Elizabeth Smart.  He had three sisters and four brothers - with the youngest brother, Douglas, also serving with the Bedford Regiment.  They both survived the War with Frederick taking up his pre-war job as a warehouseman and marrying in 1924

Sidney Price's story is linked to Luton via finding his name in an Autograph Book that existed in Collingdon Street during WW1.

He draws a beautiful winter scene on one of the earlier pages, and so I simply had to research his story.

FREE AT LAST. Cpl S Eads now in Holland.  The news that Cpl. Sydney Eads, a Lutonian, of the Australians, son of Mr W J R Eads of Rothesay Road and Dunstable Road, Luton, has been released from captivity has been a source of great relief to his relatives.  They live in the hope from day to day that he will soon be back home amongst them.  He was captured in the big push July 1916 and since then has been a prisoner of war in Germany,.  He has been interned in Holland since June this year. 

Pte Stanley Alfred Barton, 14196, 11th Battalion Essex Regiment, was reported missing during heavy fighting on the Somme in France on March 22nd, 1918. But it was not until the following February that parents Alfred and Victoria Elizabeth Barton at 2 Guildford Street, Luton, were informed officially that their son was killed or died of wounds on that date.

Trooper William George Byron was born in Macclesfield, Cheshire in 1880.

In 1891 he was living with his parents, 4 sisters & brother in Hanover Square area of Belgravia, London. His father is working as a Horse Superintendant.

On 14th July 1899 aged just 19, he joined the 2nd Life Guards in The Household Cavalry at the Regents Park Barracks. He was described 6ft 1/4 inch tall with a sallow complexion, brown hair, brown eyes with a scar on his nose & ML tattooed on his left forearm.