Pte Ernest William Bruton, 202636, 9th Battalion Essex Regiment, died in the 3rd Canadian Stationary Hospital, Doullens, France, on April 8th, 1918, following gunshot wounds in the back of the neck sustained on the battlefield. He was aged 22 and single.

An old boy of Queen Square School and a former member of the Excelsior football team, Luton, he was a son of Hannah Mary and the late Walter Bruton. At the time of Ernest's death his widowed mother was living at 55 Ash Road, Luton.

Before being called up in March 1917, he had been apprenticed to Clark's Machine Tool Co, Dunstable Road and was for a time employed at Putney. He had been in France since January 1918.