Pte Alfred Scales, 89760, 44th Field Ambulance Royal Army Medical Corps, died on August 23rd, 1917, of wounds received in action in Flanders. He was aged 36 and left a widow and six children, the youngest (Cissie) born just five days before his death.

Alfred had joined the R.A.M.C. at the Grove Road depot in Luton in September 1914. He was drafted to France in February 1917. He had been taken to the 3rd Canadian Casualty Clearing Station, where he died from wounds to the legs and an arm.

Pte George Buggs, 22845, 8th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was captured by the Germans while fighting in the front line at Hulluch in France on June 22nd, 1917, one of nine men taken prisoner in a surprise incursion by the enemy under cover of smoke and darkness.

He was interned at Dulmen in Westphalia but happily survived the war and was repatriated to return to his home at 52 North Street, Luton. He was registered as an absent voter in 1918 but was shown as at home when the electoral roll was compiled in May 1919.

Gunner Frederick Charles Smith, 81322, 65th Howitzer Battery Royal Field Artillery, died on August 10th, 1917, from wounds sustained earlier in the day in action near Armentieres.

In a letter to widowed mother Eleanor Florence Smith at 15 Cowper Street, Luton, Major C. F. Forestier Walker said he had dressed her son's wounds in the afternoon, but Frederick passed away in the late evening after he had been taken to hospital in a motor-car. Before leaving for hospital her son was almost cheerful and expecting to get well again.

Luton-born Sgt Percy Wells, 4484, 7th Regiment, South African Infantry, died from blackwater fever on August 19th, 1917, while serving in East Africa.

He was a son of Harty James and Elizabeth (Lissie) Wells, of 4 Crawley Road, Luton. He enlisted in the Royal Horse Artillery in 1909 and the following year went to South Africa. He was on his way back to England when war was declared and was sent back to Africa, where he was transferred to the South African Infantry and rose through the ranks.

Second Lieut Herbert James Day had served as an observer with the Royal Flying Corps for only about six weeks when he was wounded in aerial combat on Tuesday, August 7th, 1917. He died of his wounds the following day in a casualty clearing station in France.

Sgt Carl Hill, 3/7592, 7th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action in the Third Battle of Ypres on August 16th, 1917. There was no report or family announcement of his death in the local Press, but he is included on the Luton Roll of Honour.

Carl was born in Sandridge, near St Albans, in 1883, the son of James and Eliza Hill. In 1901 he was a boarder in London before moving to Lancashire, where he married Sarah Alice Friar at Prescot, St Helens, in 1910.

It was not until August 1917 that the family of Pte Stanley Thomas Warner, G/15027, 11th Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment, were officially notified that he was presumed to have died on the battlefield on October 21st, 1916.

The 28-year-old had lived with grandparents William and Emma Warner, of 40 Alma Street, Luton for some years before joining the Leicestershire Regiment (5940) in 1915. He was later transferred to the Royal Sussex Regiment while in France before being reported wounded and missing on October 21st, 1916.

In August 1917, nearly eleven months after he was first reported wounded and missing, Guardsman Cyril Bernard Bryan, 18447, 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, was acknowledged as presumed to have died on the battlefield on September 25th 1916.

Cyril Bryan was born in London in 1892 and came to Luton about three years before the outbreak of war to work for outfitter Mr Mares, of George Street. He had been the first member of the firm to join the Army after hostilities broke out, and had been wounded three times before going missing.

Pte Albert King, 87202, 149th Company Machine Gun Corps (Infantry), was killed in action in France on August 3rd, 1917. A letter to widow Louisa Jane said: "Your husband was killed instantaneously by a shell in the early morning, about 2am.

"He with the rest of the team was in a dug-out well behind the front line when their dug-out was hit by a shell. You husband was buried the same day by a padre in a British cemetery, and a cross has been placed over his grave."

Pte William Scrivener, 18757, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment (transferred to 208th Division Employment Corps, Labour Corps - 22240), died probably from shell shock in France when the area he was in came under fire on August 12th, 1917.

It was Capt Stephens, of the Beds Regiment, who wrote to widow Mary Ellen Scrivener at 112 Wenlock Street with the news of her husband's death. He wrote:

Gunner Arthur William Loney, 163241, 32nd Divisional Ammunition Column, Royal Field Artillery, died accidentally in France from a gunshot wound on August 11th*, 1917. He was aged 25 and left a widow and a year-old child.

A chaplain wrote to Mrs Edith May Loney at 169 Wellington Street, Luton, to say he had laid her husband to rest. Gunner Loney was accidentally killed on Sunday night (August 12th*). No further details of the incident were included.

Driver Walter Gylee, 184771, 88th Battery, 14th Brigade Royal Field Artillery, died of wounds in France on August 11th, 1917. He was born and bred in Lincoln but for a time had been a junior assistant with Wootton & Webb pharmacists on Market Hill, Luton.

He had taken his job at Luton after war broke out and was hoping to obtain his full qualifications as a pharmacist. But he joined the R.F.A. in October 1916 and had been in France only a few weeks when he died of wounds received on the battlefield.

Pte Charles Herbert Halfpenny, 32135, 6th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action in Flanders on August 9th, 1917. According to a letter sent to his widow Dorothy he was the victim of a sniper while he slept.

Charles Halfpenny had joined the Territorials prior to the war and was mobilised with the 5th Bedfords at the outbreak of hostilities. He was wounded during the Gallipoli Campaign and invalided home.

Leaving Halton in November 1916 he went to France, where he was drafted into the 6th Bedfords and again wounded, in May 1917.

Pte Harry Isaac Hurry, 238022, 12th Battalion Middlesex Regiment, was killed in action on August 7th, 1917, although an officer at the Front gave the date as August 8th.

Along with his brother Archie Oliver Hurry, Harry enlisted March 1917. The brothers not only had consecutive service numbers (Archie was 238021) in the Middlesex Regiment, they also married on the same day - May 21st, 1917, at Christ Church - at the end of nine weeks training and before they were drafted out to France.

Sgt Arthur William Groves, 9643, 6th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action in Belgium on August 6th, 1917. He is commemorated on the Luton Roll of Honour but may not have had much association with the town as no local address is recorded for him.

His death also appears to have gone unrecorded in the Luton Press, but his step-father was born in the town and members of his family lived here after the war.