Sgt William Phypers, 2057, 12th Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment, died in a casualty clearing station in France on July 17th, 1916, after being severely wounded on June 29th and lying unattended in No Man's Land between the trenches for a whole day before being picked up. The spell of exposure was reported to be ultimately the cause cause of his death.

Born in Cambridge to William and Mary Phypers in January 1885, he later became well known in Luton as a member of Luton Amateur Dramatic Society, of which he was secretary for about two years, but never aspired to leading roles on stage.

He had been a clerk at the London County and Westminster Bank on the corner of George Street and Chapel Street for several years before he left Luton in April 1913 to take up duties at the bank's Tunbridge Wells branch in Kent. At the time of the 1911 Census he was lodging with widow Lucy Schooling and her daughter Maud at 96 Tennyson Road, Luton.

It was while in Kent that he met Audrey Annie Box and they were married at Hollingbourne in August 1915. Later that year daughter Beryl Mary was born.

Audrey remarried in late 1917 and she and new husband Geoffrey Depass emigrated to the United States in 1939.