Driver Percy Albert Horwood, 208439, 282nd Brigade Royal Field Artillery, was killed in action in France on the morning of November 1st, 1918. He was aged 28 and a son of Old Bedford Road hat manufacturer Joseph Albert Horwood and his wife Lucy, who lived at 41 Biscot Road, Luton.

In a letter of sympathy to widow Jemima Horwood, living in Wood Green, London, an officer wrote: “I was not present when his death occurred, but I have ascertained exactly what happened. A shell came into the waggon line, and your husband and a comrade were hit. Both died instantaneously and suffered no pain.

“He was buried near the spot where he died, and we secured a chaplain to conduct a burial service. I am having a cross made by his comrades in the Battery and will have it put on his grave.”

Born in Luton in 1890, Percy had been an assistant in several Luton boot shops before moving to from the town about five years before his death.

It was in Balsall Heath, Birmingham, that he had married Jemima Hardstaff on August 4th, 1913. Jemima's address on the wedding certificate is given as 89 High Town Road, Luton. The couple then moved to London.

Percy had been in the Army about two-and-a-half years, and had been in France since June 1917.