Pte Albert Ford, 25327, 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, died on July 17th, 1916, of wounds sustained on the Somme. He was aged 19 and the second son of John and Emma Ford, of 48 Burr Street, Luton, to die on the battlefield.

Pte Ford was a "Derby" recruit and was called up five months previously. He was drafted into the Bedfords and had been at the Front only a short time. A letter from the Record Office to his mother said he son had been buried in the Dive Copse Cemetery,

Before enlisting he work at the bleaching and dyeing firm of Mr Stewart Hubbard.

Older brother Fred East, 29 - he used his mother's maiden name and was John's stepson - was killed by a shell in the retreat from Mons in November 1914. Born in 1885, he is perhaps the only man to be commemorated twice on the Luton Roll of Honour - as Pte Frederick John East, 3/6435, 1st Bedfords (no address), and as Pte Frederick Ford, 3/6435, 3rd Bedfords, of 48 Burr Street, Luton. Military records show he was in the 1st Bedfords when he died.

A third son, John, aged 27, was with the Army Service Corps. He had served several years in South Africa and had been in France since the beginning of hostilities.