Pte George Leslie Wooding, 20953, 8th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action on November 20th, 1917, at the start of the Battle of Cambrai. He had twice previously been wounded and also escaped an air raid.

George Wooding joined the Bedfordshire Regiment in June 1915, around the time of a three-day recruiting march around Bedfordshire by the 1/5th Bedfords. He was drafted to France the following February and two months later received his first wound, from which he recovered at a base hospital.

He was wounded again the following September, X-rays revealing shrapnel embedded in him which required an operation to remove. Following recuperation he was sent to Languard and then back to France.

In April 1917 he was invalided to Reading due to trouble with an old wound, and after again being declared fit he was sent to another town where he had another narrow escape, this time in an air raid. He later returned for a final time to the firing line.

The son of Samuel George and Lily Ann Wooding, of 42 Chapel Street, Luton, he was employed at the Hastings Street branch of the Luton Industrial Co-operative Society as a grocer's assistant before joining up. He was also Sunday School Secretary at King Street Congregational Church, Luton, and organist for the Sunday school.

Family announcements of his death included one from his devoted sweetheart, Gertie Kent, of 59 Hazelbury Crescent, Luton. It was not until 1923 that Gertie finally married, her husband then being Alfred G. Trotter.