Stoker First Class Horace Stanley Sharp, K17954, Royal Navy, was killed instantly by a bomb dropped on Chatham Dockyard by a German aircraft carrying out a raid on Kent on the bright moonlit night of September 3rd, 1917. Six enemy aircraft had flown up the Thames Estuary to attack Sheerness, Thanet and Chatham, killing 107 Naval ratings and wounding 86 others.
Tragically for parents Harry and Edith May Sharp, of 5 Windmill Street [later Welbeck Road], Luton, a second son, Pte Harry Sharp (Royal Fusiliers), died of wounds received in action in Flanders two days later - on September 5th, 1917.
Horace Sharp was aged 23 and had been in the Navy for five years. He had received the King's Medal during service that had taken him to the Persian Gulf and the Dardanelles.
He was an old boy of St Matthew's School, Luton, and prior to joining the Navy was employed as a moulder by the Luton Iron Foundry Co, Cobden Street. He was also a member of the Luton Victoria Football Club.