Pte Arthur William Thomas Claridge, G/21209, 6th Battalion The Buffs (East Kent Regiment), died on October 4th, 1917, from wounds sustained in France.

A hospital nurse wrote to parents Frederick and Hannah at Bendish, Herts, stating that their only son died in hospital as the result of shell wounds in the chest, back and arm. He was unconscious from the time he was wounded. He was buried in a French cemetery with a cross erected over his grave.

Gunner Edwin Ernest Jeffs, 144354, 'C' Battery, 74th Brigade Royal Field Artillery, was killed in action in Flanders on October 4th, 1917, "serving his gun like a hero". But in Luton he would be remembered as a founder and conductor of the Luton Orchestral Society, "a man who had just begun to develop those glimmerings of genius...as an outstanding exponent and interpreter of the profession he was so well fitted to adorn".

L-Cpl Horace Charles Mayles, 45373, Machine Gun Corps, was killed in action in Flanders on September 20th, 1917. He was aged 24, married with one child and a home address of 14 Wood Street, Luton. He was also a bandsman in the Park Street Salvation Army Temple Band.

In a letter to widow Elsie, comrade Pte G. Toyer, of 134 Chapel Street, Luton, said they had had to attack the enemy trenches at about 5.45am on September 20th and they had not got far over the top when her husband was hit in the head by a sniper's bullet. He died in a few seconds and did not suffer paid.

Pte Alfred Arthur Ashton, 33689, 8th Battalion Yorks & Lancs Regiment, was killed in action in Belgium on October 1st, 1917. He was aged 19.

He was struck by a shell whilst doing his duty in the front line and died instantly, according to a letter from a comrade sent to parents Bruce and Annie Ashton, of 28 Duke Street, Luton.

Alfred Ashton had enlisted in the Norfolk Regiment six months earlier and was subsequently transferred to the Yorks and Lancs Regiment. He had been in France only five weeks.

Sgt George Herbert Saddington, 240289, 2/5th Battalion Leicestershire Regiment, died in the 44th Casualty Clearing Station in Flanders on September 28th, 1917, two days after being admitted with a gunshot wound in the neck.

Rifleman Joseph Walter Kirby, 474416, 2/12th Battalion London Regiment (ex-1907, Royal Army Medical Corps), was killed in action on September 26th, 1917. A letter from the Front said he was shot in the head by a German sniper.

The 23-year-old was a son of Walter and Rose Kirby, of 9 Old Bedford Road, Luton. He enlisted first in the East Anglian Royal Engineers at the outbreak of war, having been a shoeing-smith employed in the Luton Corporation Yard. He was transferred to several other regiments before finally joining the London Regiment.

Gunner William James Bass, 111890, 238th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery, in the 2nd Casualty Clearing Station, France, on the evening of September 27th, 1917, from wounds received on the battlefield the previous day.

A sister at the hospital wrote that Gunner Bass had been admitted with a severe fracture of the skull and a fractured arm. All possible was done for him, but to no avail and he passed peacefully away without regaining consciousness.

Pte Percy Edward Roe, 203850, 1/1st Hertfordshire Regiment, was into only his third day in the trenches when he died on September 25th, 1917, from wounds sustained on the battlefield near Ypres. He left behind a young widow whom he married only about three months earlier.

His section commander wrote that he and his men were in a support trench when a heavy bombardment started. A shell burst near and blew up eight men, including Pte Roe.

Pte William Jackson, 238023, 12th Battalion Middlesex Regiment, was reported wounded and missing in Flanders on August 7th, 1917, and later presumed dead on that date. He was aged 29, married and had one child.

Widow Maud first received official news from the War Office in September 1917 that her husband was wounded. A month later she learned he was missing, but he was still included on Luton's 1918 absent voters' list with an address at 78 Frederic Street.

Pte Wilfred John Kibble, 118701, Army Service Corps (M.T.), attached to the 92nd Field Ambulance, Royal Army Service Corps, died of wounds at the 36th Casualty Clearing Station in France, on September 22nd, 1917.

It was at the end of a final act of gallantry and devotion to duty that Pte Kibble, who had been a footman to Lady Wernher at Luton Hoo, collapsed and died. Although being badly wounded about the head, he continued to drive his ambulance to the Advanced Dressing Station, where he succumbed to his fate.

Pte Albert Cooper, 40360, 1/5th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers, was killed in action in Belgium on September 6th, 1917. The Stopsley soldier's death came on the day before his 22nd birthday.

The youngest son of Arthur and Mary Ann Cooper, of Hazeldene, Ramridge Road [Ashcroft Road], Stopsley, he had enlisted in the Fusiliers in February 1916, and had been in France only nine weeks.

He was employed as a shop assistant by confectioner Herbert Heley at 20 Manchester Street, Luton. He had also been a member of the Stopsley Wesleyan Sunday School.

The death in action on September 20th, 1917, in the Third Battle of Ypres in Belgium of Pte Stanley John Roe, 32254, 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment appears to have gone unrecorded in Luton newspapers.

Census and other records, however show that he was the son of David (died 1908) and Kate (died 1914) Roe, both of whom lived only into their 30s. By 1911, Stanley was a 15-year-old foundry worker living at 98 Hitchin Road, Luton, with his widowed mother and a three-year-old sister, Gladys.

Pte Horace Edgar Hubbocks, 3/7430, 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action in Belgium on September 20th, 1917.

Born in Tring in 1898 and a son of William and Kate Hubbocks, of the Hare and Hounds pub, 32 New Town Street, Luton, he was mobilised at the outbreak of war and was stationed at Landguard, Suffolk, for 12 months. He was drafted to France while still aged only 17 and had served two years out there.

Pte Thomas Lewis, 235258, Lincolnshire Regiment, was reported missing in action at Wytschaete, Belgium, on July 31st, 1917, during the Battle of Messines, and later to be a prisoner of war of the Germans at Dulmen, Westphalia.

He survived the war and was repatriated. He returned to his wife Elizabeth and sons and lived at 3 Wood Street, Luton, until the 1930s, when he and Elizabeth moved to 11 Bailey Street. Thomas died in 1941 at the age of 57.

Pte Sidney Charles Peters, 10576, 'A' Company, 1/2nd London Regiment Royal Fusiliers, was captured by the Germans at Polygon Wood, near Ypres in Belgium, on August 16th, 1917. He was a prisoner of war at Dulmen, Westphalia, Germany, but survived the war and was repatriated.