Pte Joseph Summerfield, 15366, 7th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action in France on June 17th, 1917. He had enlisted at the outbreak of war and spent two years in France without leave.

In a letter to sister Ada Summerfield (working as a live-in domestic servant for straw hat manufacturer Arthur Field, of 112 Old Bedford Road, Luton), Lieut Freuman said Pte Summerfield was killed on the morning of Sunday, the 17th. He suffered no pain as he was killed instantly, and was buried about half a mile west of Cherisy, near Arras. The location of the grave seems to have been lost, however, as Pte Summerfield is commemorated on the Arras Memorial as a soldier with no known grave.

Joseph Summerfield was born in Sundon in 1888 to William and Elizabeth Summerfield, who in the 1891 Census were listed as living at Mr Cooper's Cottage, Lower Sundon. At the time of the 1901 Census he was living with an uncle and aunt (George and Rose Summerfield) in Upper Sundon. Like his uncle, he became an employee of the Sundon Cement and Lime Works, and in 1911 he was lodging with fellow cement works employee Charles Goss and his wife Ellen, also in Sundon.

Joseph is commemorated on three local war memorials - Sundon Village (pictured), Sundon Cement and Lime Works and at Luton.