Soldier

Sergeant Arthur Boshell

Serjeant Major Arthur Boshell died age 35 on 22 July 1917, he was the son of Thomas and Margaret Boshell of Reading and husband of Elma Boshell of Mill  House Aldeby Norfolk. His grave reference is 1101 in the Salonika, Lembet Road Military Cemetery.

Private Arthur Ernest Hollard Hitchcock

Arthur was born in 1883 in Luton to Edwin and Mary Elizabeth Hitchcock.

In 1911 Arthur was living at 74 Lea Road with his 69 year old widowed mother and his 36 year old unmarried sister Mary Elizabeth Ann. His sister was a straw hat finisher and Arthur was working as a whitesmith at an ironmongers.

Whilst serving in the Royal Army Service Corps in Flanders he caught TB and was discharged from active service and sent home.

 

Sapper Walter William Pinney

In the 1911 census, Walter was living at 30 Oak Road, Luton. He was living with his 50 year old father Walter, who was as brickmaker's labourer, sister Ellen Victoria, 23, working as a launderess and his 17 year old sister Edith, who is a strawhat machinist. Walter is working as a sawmill machinist.

Drummer E J Blagdon

DRUMMER AND A WOUNDED COMRADE  "WAITING OUR DEATH"  LUTON NEWS LETTER JANUARY 1915.

Drummer  E J Blagdon, of the 2nd Battalion Beds Regiment, describes some narrow escapes in a letter he has just written from the front - he says -

Driver John Percy Wood

John Percy Wood, one of sixteen children, from Slip End, nr. Luton  enlisted as a volunteer  aged 18 and joined Lord Kitcheners Army   on the 26th May 1915 at Luton, he was assigned Army number 2219, he undertook a medical examination, to test his fitness for active service, at Wardown Park Hospital and was judged as good.

He was assigned to the 2nd/5th Staffordshire Royal Field Artillery Battery, 2/3rd  North Midland Artillery Brigade, he undertook his training at Biscot Huts, an Army Camp near to Biscot Mill, Luton.

Captain Charles Calverley Foss V.C. C.B. D.S.O.

Charles was born 8th March 1885 in Kobe, Japan, the eldest son of the Right Reverend Hugh James Foss, Bishop of Osaka.

He enrolled into the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst in 1902 and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Bedfordshire Regiment in 1904. Charles Foss was serving in the 2nd Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment in South Africa when the war broke out and the battalion made it to the Western Front in time for the First Battle of Ypres. He was one of only four Officers to survive the battle during which he won his Distinguished Service Order (medal).

Captain John Stanhope Collings-Wells V.C. D.S.O.

Second Lieutenant Collings-Wells was commissioned into the Bedfordshire Regiment on 14th March 1904 having previously served with the Hertfordshire Militia. He became a Lieutenant in September 1904 and Captain in January 1907. On the outbreak of war he was recalled to the colours and arrived in France with the Bedfordshire Regiment on the 22nd August 1914, where he served in the 2nd Battalion once they had arrived from South Africa. By October 1916 he was promoted to acting Lieutenant-Colonel in command of the 4th Battalion and remained at that post until his death.

Lieutenant Frederick William Hedges V.C.

Frederick William Hedges was born on the 6th June 1896 at Umballa in India. His father was Henry George Hedges who was 'born at Sea, Bengal Bay' around 1857 and his mother was Mrs Harriet Eliza (nee Loader) Hedges, born in India around 1865. In 1901 the family were living at 24 Landsdowne Road, Hounslow, Middlesex. Henry was a superintendent (assurance) and Freddie was the seventh of nine children. He was later educated at Grove Road Boy's School, and Isleworth County School.

Private Samuel Needham V.C.

Samuel Needham was born in Great Limber, Lincolnshire on the 16th August 1885, to Septimus and Mary Needham. His father was one of Lord Yarborough's grooms and Sam was to follow in his fathers footsteps. When he left the Brockesby Stables, he worked in several other hunting stables, including the Duke of Westminster's and the Earl of Fitzwilliam's.

2nd Lieutenant Tom Edwin Adlam V.C.

Tom Edwin Adlam was born at Waterloo Gardens in Salisbury, on the 21st October 1893, the son of John and Evangeline Adlam. Following his education at Bishop Wordsworth's School, Salisbury, he joined the Territorial Force in September 1912, and in November 1915 was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Bedfordshire Regiment.

Private Edward Warner V.C.

Edward was born 18th November 1883, at St Albans in Hertfordshire. Although his father had previously been married to Ann Lowe, it appears that Edward was the only son of Mark and Charlotte Warner. Mark was a Platelayer Foreman on the Railways who was born in Wheathampstead around 1832 and his mother Charlotte (formerly Barber) was from London, being born around 1841.

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