Pte Herbert William Carter, 34097, 17th Battalion Middlesex Regiment, died in a military hospital in France on March 7th, 1917, suffering from spotted fever.

He is pictured wearing the Edward Medal for civilian gallantry with which, as a Luton Corporation employee, he had in October 1913 been presented by King George V at Buckingham Palace after saving the life of a colleague who lay unconscious at the bottom of a gas-filled well at Luton Sewerage Works. Colleague William Brandon also received the medal for going down the well in June 1911 in an attempt to rescue another colleague, Alfred Butterfield, who died after suffocating from foul gas. Herbert Carter in turn volunteered to rescue the unconscious Brandon and tied a rope round him to have him pulled back to the surface. Herbert Carter then tied a rope around Butterfield's lifeless body and that, too, was dragged out of the well before Carter was pulled clear.

Born in Breachwood Green in 1890, Herbert Carter had married Grace Hilliard in Luton in late 1911. At the time of his death Grace was living at 54 Norman Road, Luton, while his widowed mother, Mary Ann, continued to live at Breachwood Green.