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.

A memorial service was held at the No 2 Salvation Army Temple in Manchester Street for Cpl Smart on Sunday, April 15th, 1917, after official notification of his death was received from the War Office.

Sydney Smart was born in his mother Grace's home town of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. Father Sydney brought his family back to Luton, where he had been born, when his son was a young boy. The family lived in Inkerman Street before moving to Ivy Road.

Cpl Smart enlisted in the Bedfords in August 1914, going to Dovercourt and Colchester to undergo training. He married Bertha in Luton in July 1915 before going to the Front the following December.

Prior to joining up, Sydney was apprenticed as a tailor to Mr Alexander Southam in Dunstable Road, Luton, and was later employed at a factory in St Albans.

Bertha remarried in 1921, later moving with new husband Frank Pimm to Chesham, Bucks.