Luton's People 1914-1918
This page contains a list of soldiers/civilians from Luton and surroundings 1914-1918, and the ancestors of people who live in Luton today. It has been compiled from the 1918 Luton Absent Voters List, Rolls of Honour; and information researched and uploaded by project volunteers and members of the public.
If you find your ancestor here, and there is only basic information available, then feel free to use the comment box to add further information you may already know. The WWI Project Team, can then add this further information to the basic data we already hold.
The sources of this information can be found via the links below. Please feel free to download and use this information, but please please search for and upload your ancestor to the site if/when you find them:-
Absent Voters List
Luton Roll of honour
Before adding anybody to the site, it is always advisable to search for your ancestor first.
Lieut Sidney Charles Squires, 2/5th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment, was killed in action in at Valenciennes in France on October 28th, 1918. He was a holder of the Belgian Croix de Guerre, awarded the previous February for intelligence work while with the Brigade staff.
Pte Charles Barnard Plater, 265668. 2nd Battalion Royal West Surrey Regiment, was killed in action in Italy on October 29th, 1918. He was aged 22 and single.
Spr George Kendal Silsbey (Silsby), 522296, 486th Field Coy, Royal Engineers, died in Egypt on October 31st*, 1918, from pneumonia. Parents Harry and Caroline Annie (Carrie) Silsbey had been hoping to see him on home leave. They had not seen him since 1915, when he went to East.
Pte Clarence Blackbourn, 40100, 2nd Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment, was killed in action on the Somme on February 27th, 1917. He was single and aged 19.
L-Cpl Charles Moulster, P/14546, Military Foot Police Corps, died from influenza on October 31st, 1918, while serving in Italy. A chaplain wrote to parents James and Sarah Moulster at Kensworth to say that his grave would be cared for and a cross erected.
Driver Percy Albert Horwood, 208439, 282nd Brigade Royal Field Artillery, was killed in action in France on the morning of November 1st, 1918. He was aged 28 and a son of Old Bedford Road hat manufacturer Joseph Albert Horwood and his wife Lucy, who lived at 41 Biscot Road, Luton.
Pte George William Smith, F/3441, 4th Battalion Middlesex Regiment, was killed in action at Solesmes, east of Cambrai in France, on October 12th, 1918. He was aged 34 and a married man with three children.
Sgt Arthur Foster, 16999, 2nd Battalion Machine Gun Corps (Infantry), died of influenza on November 2nd, 1918, in the No 6 General Hospital, Rouen, France.
Pte Oliver Howard, 39454, 5th Battalion King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, was killed in action in France on November 3rd, 1918 – eight days before the armistice and only three days after he had been drafted to France. Aged 18, he was the youngest of five serving brothers.
Sec Lieut Frank Hubert Barton, Royal Fusiliers, attached Royal Irish Rifles, was killed by a high explosive shell while leading his men into action in France on November 5th, 1918. The War Office had at first recorded his death as accidental.
Private Thomas Frederick Piggott 17458 was my grandfather’s elder brother. He was born in 1895, the eldest of 4 brothers, and worked as a shop assistant before volunteering October 1914 into the 8th battalion Bedfordshire Regiment.
Pte William Edwin Burgess, A/437681, Expeditionary Force Canteen, Army Service Corps, died in the 53rd Stationary Hospital in Russia on November 5th, 1918.
Pte Henry (Harry) William Wilkinson, 60108, 1st Battalion Royal Fusiliers, was killed in action in France on November 5th, 1918, while serving in a machine gun section. Born in Luton, he was aged 23 and single.
L-Cpl George Thomas Winch, CH/14986, Royal Marine Light Infantry, died from double pneumonia in the Royal Naval Hospital, Edinburgh, on November 5th, 1918. He was aged 36.
Pte Alfred Giltrow, M/319891, 10th Motor Transport Coy, Army Service Corps, died from tuberculosis in Cairo General Hospital, Egypt, on November 6th, 1918. He had been admitted dangerously ill four days previously.
Pte Stanley Wright, M/314452, Army Service Corps (M.T.), died suffering from smallpox in an isolation hospital at Amara in Mesopotamia (Iraq) on November 7th, 1918. He left a widow and two children living in Luton.
Volenteering, at the age of 15, in November 1914, he served on important duties at various stations until 1916, when he was drafted to the Western Front.
A poppy in remembrance of Pte Arthur William Brown, 56724, 2/5th Lancashire Fusiliers, who may have been the last Lutonian to be killed in action in the Great War, on November 10th, 1918 – the day before the armistice.
Pte William James Goodman, 78161, 9th Battalion London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers) was killed in action at Epehy in France on September 21st, 1918. He was aged 18.
Gunner George Stanley Percy Kingham, 173474, 117th Brigade Royal Field Artillery, died in the 15th Casualty Clearing Station in France on the evening of November 13th, 1918 – two days after the armistice. He had been gassed by a German shell while in action at Ypres on November 9th.
Pte Frederick William Kirby, 18560, 54th Divisional Army Cyclist Corps, died from malaria in the 17th General Hospital at Alexandria, Egypt, on November 16th, 1918.
Gunner Samuel de Vere Kingham, 285092, 122nd Anti-Aircraft Section Royal Garrison Artillery, died from dysentery in hospital at Alexandria in Egypt on November 18th, 1918.
Pte George Simpson, 29812, 7th Battalion Royal West Surrey Regiment, died in France on November 18th, 1918, from wounds sustained in action nine days previously.
Sgt George Edward Thomas Barrett, 200464, 1/5th Bedfordshire Regiment, died in Egypt from malaria on November 19th, 1918. He was aged 23, the eldest son of George and Amelia Barrett, of 32 South Road, Luton.
Pte William Cherry, 34425, 2nd Battalion Essex Regiment, was killed in action on April 9th, 1917. Sadly, no reports about him were carried in local newspapers at the time.
Sapper Walter ('Dick') Shane, 522394, 486th Field Company Royal Engineers, died from bronchitis and pneumonia in hospital in Egypt on November 22nd, 1918. He was aged 21 and single.
Pte Henry Bunyan MM, 33018, 6th Battalion Leicestershire Regiment, was killed in action in the battle of the Lys in Flanders on April 26th, 1918, when the Allies were about to halt the German spring offensive of 1918.
Gunner Percival (Percy) Chase Nicholls, 220919, 291st Brigade Royal Field Artillery, died from pneumonia in the 51st Casualty Clearing Station at Tournai in Belgium on November 26th, 1918.
Sapper John William Hobbs, 522405, 486th Field Company Royal Engineers, died of pneumonia in the 87th General Hospital in Egypt on November 27th, 1918. He was aged 26 and had enlisted in January 1915.
Sgt Arthur Ernest Kennedy (Jamieson), 29683, 2nd Battalion Wiltshire Regiment (ex-20841 Devonshire Regiment), died on October 26th, 1918, while being held as a prisoner of war in Germany.
Edward Sell Payne, a colourful local character known as 'Major' Payne, died at his home at 81 Cromwell Road, Luton, on November 21st, 1918, at the age of 77. His funeral took place at the Church Cemetery on November 28th.
Pte Frederick Walter Priestland, 103499, 10th Battalion Sherwood Foresters (Notts & Derby Regiment), died in the General Hospital at Rouen in France on December 1st, 1918, as the result of a gunshot wound to the head sustained on November 8th. He was aged 21.
Pte William Johnson, 269206, 1/1st Battalion Hertfordshire Regiment, was killed in action on April 28th, 1918, during the German spring offensive. He was aged 33.
Pte Robert George Veasey, 75973, 2nd Battalion London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), was reported missing, later presumed killed in action on the Somme, on April 24, 1918. In January 1919 widowed mother Mrs Annie Veasey was still appealing for news of her son.
Company Sgt Major Alec Cook, 9119, 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action at Albert in France on August 20th, 1918, an action in which he was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal.
Pte James Ernest Linger, 60826, 8th Battalion London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), was reported missing at Cambrai in France on November 30th, 1917.
Pte Bertram Wood, 41662, 8th Battalion Leicestershire Regiment, died as a prisoner of war in the Crossen Camp hospital at Kaehmen in Germany on October 22nd, 1918. The cause of death was influenza – inflammation of the lungs, as his Red Cross report stated. He was aged 29.
Death has removed a well-known and highly-respected figure in the public life of Luton, in the person of Mr Alfred Thomas Loose, the respected keeper of the Town Hall, wrote the Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph (January 18th, 1919).
484 E A R E, service no. 5244149
Driver Horace Coles, 524501, 360th Water Coy Royal Engineers, died in the 24th Stationary Hospital, Kantara, Egypt, on January 26th, 1919, from bronchial pneumonia following influenza. He had been admitted to hospital on the 18th.