Pte Cyril Charles Scoats, 90044, Royal Army Medical Corps, was lost at sea when the troopship SS Arcadian was torpedoed by a German U-boat off the Greek island of Milos in the Aegean Sea on April 15th, 1917. A total of 279 lives were lost, including another Lutonian, Pte Stanley Glenister R.A.M.C., as the converted cruise liner with 1,335 soldiers and crew on board sank within six minutes on a journey from Thessaloniki to Alexandria in Egypt.

Pte Arthur Joseph Wright, 33833, 8th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action near Loos in France on April 15th, 1917. He left a widow, Florence Caroline, and a three-year-old son, Sidney, residing at 6 Clarendon Road, Luton.

Pte Wright was killed instantly by a shell which burst through the parapet of his trench two days after his 31st birthday. His last letter home was written on his birthday, but Florence had received no early news as her husband's chums were killed with him.

Pte George Hull, 15287, 6th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action in France some time between April 9th and 12th, 1917. He was 28 and single from Upper Sundon, and had worked at the Sundon Cement and Lime Works before enlisting.

He was first reported to be missing on April 9th but it was not until early June that his mother Anne had confirmation that George had been killed in action.

Pte Charles William Soper, 32160, 6th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment was killed in action in France on April 11th, 1917. He was aged 23.

In a letter to parents Charles and Jane Soper at 81 Boyle Street, Luton, Second Lieut Dudley W. Wright wrote that their son was killed during the last great advance on April 11th. Charles was shot through the head and his death must have been instantaneous.

Pte Albert Edward Nicholson, 233543 (8090), 1/2nd Battalion London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), was killed in action in Flanders on April 12th, 1917. He was aged 28.

A Roll of Honour advert in The Luton News appears to the only local mention of Pte Nicholson's death. That was placed by his widow, Florence (nee Phillips), whom Albert had married in Luton in June 1915, and who was living at the time at 68 Tavistock Street, Luton. Florence later returned to live with her widowed mother, Hannah, at 50 Ivy Road, Luton, and never remarried.

Pte Harry Gilmore Bumstead (Bumpstead*), 90017, 45th Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, was killed in action in France on April 12th, 1917. He was aged 21.

He had joined the Territorials in October 1913, and on the outbreak of war was stationed near Brighton and later at Rendlesham Park, Norfolk. He saw service overseas when he went to the Dardanelles in October 1915. There he contracted dysentery and was invalided home the following January. After a stay in England he went to Ireland before being drafted to France.

Trooper Thomas Harry Pipkin, 5495, 12th (Prince of Wales') Royal Lancers was killed in action in France on April 11th, 1917. He had survived the first cavalry charge of the war and was engaged in another cavalry advance when he met his death at the age of 19.

Second Lieut Frederic George Thompson, 7th Bedfords attached to 6th Bedfords, was killed in action by a shell in France on April 11th, 1917. He was aged 30.

Although living in Castle Road, Bedford, he had spent 12 years as a cashier at Barclays Bank in Luton, whom he joined in 1904.

He had offered himself for service in he early stages of the war but had been rejected. About a year before his death, however, he got into the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps and was later gazetted to the Bedfordshire Regiment, with whom he went from Landguard to serve in France.

Pte Frederick Reginald Allen, 27968, 6th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action while serving as a stretcher bearer in Flanders on April 9th, 1917. He was aged 27.

Pte Horace George McDonnell, 31903, 6th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action in France on April 9th, 1917. This date was supplied in two contemporary letters received independently from the front by parents Walter and Alice McDonnell, of 29 Malvern Road, Luton, although later records give a date of April 12th.

Captain Harry Cunvin Horsford, 5th Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment, was killed in action in France on April 8th, 1917. He was aged 29.

Born in Stoke Newington, London, he moved as a baby with parents Frank and Annie Horsford and family to Luton. By 1911 and at the time of Harry's death, the family were living in Hendon.

Cpl Sydney Arthur Smart, 33269, 8th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, died on April 6th, 1917, from wounds sustained in France. He was aged 24 and left a widow, Bertha May (nee Harper), living at 46 St Saviours Crescent Luton.

A Chaplain wrote to Mrs Smart to inform her that her husband had been brought into a Casualty Clearing Station at about midnight very badly wounded and, although everything possible was done for him, he passed peacefully away at 5.30am.

Signalman James Baird Stewart RN, J/29093, was drowned in a collision in the North Sea in which the minesweeper HMS Q20 sank. The body of the 19-year-old was never recovered.

Mother Mrs Jessie Stewart, of 25 John Street, Luton, was officially told of his death on the following Monday. The family had moved to Luton from Scotland some years earlier, and James had served in the Navy for three years. Prior to enlistment he had worked at the Diamond Foundry in Dallow Road, Luton.

Gunner Sidney Stewart (Stuart) Pearson, 115317, 225th Siege Battery Royal Garrison Artillery, was killed in action in France on March 30th, 1917. He was a widower aged 34 with two children.

Children Constance, aged 11, and Gladys, aged eight, were living with their mother's parents, baker James Ansell and his wife Phoebe at 7 Guildford Street, Luton. Their daughter Agnes had married Sidney Pearson on November 9th, 1905, but had died at the age of 31 on June 9th, 1911.

Sapper Ernest Robinson, 522390, 486th Field Company Royal Engineers, was killed in action in Egypt on March 27th, 1917. Born in 1896, he was an orphan living with step-parents Joseph and Sarah Bent at 54 Boyle Street, Luton.

Ernest had joined up two months after the outbreak of war and was wounded in the leg in training when a trench was blown up. Subsequently he came unscathed through the Gallipoli campaign before being drafted to Egypt with his unit.