Pte Thomas Everitt, 3/8430, 8th Battalion Beds Regiment, was killed in action near Ypres on March 1st, 1916. His younger brother, Frederick, 15432, Essex Regiment, was killed at Loos on September 26th, 1915.

The brothers' parents, Thomas and Rhoda Everitt, of 12 Harcourt Street, Luton, heard of the second tragedy to hit their family shortly after the death of 35-year-old Thomas.

Thomas Everitt had lived in Luton until 15 years previously. He married Rosa Smith in 1897 and went to work in the paper mills at Hemel Hempstead, He left a widow and six children.

Pte Thomas John Bunker, 18968, 3rd Battalion Grenadier Guards, was killed in action in France on February 10th, 1916. Using the name John, he was 19 and his home was at 73 Beech Road, Luton.

Previously he lived at London Road Lodge, Stockwood, with parents John and Fanny Bunker and family. His father was gamekeeper to Mrs Crawley, of Stockwood House, for nearly a quarter of a century.

Trooper Charles William Reginald 'Reggie' Looker, 1236, 1/1st Bedfordshire Yeomanry, was killed in action in France on February 1st, 1916. His body with a bullet wound through the head was discovered in a trench by his younger brother Richard.

Company Quartermaster-Sgt Douglas Ritchie, Army Service Corps, died in the Fulham Military Hospital on January 15th, 1916, from double pneumonia.

The 30-year-old Scotsman was the brother-in-law of Charles Cameron, of 51 Belmont Road, Luton, proprietor of Camerons (Luton) Ltd, a printing company based in Cheapside. Douglas Ritchie had been a co-director of the firm until he gave up his business interests to take up aviation. He had gained his pilot's licence before suffering an unfortunate breakdown in health.

Pte Stephen George Hare, 8426, 1st Battalion, Beds Regt, was killed in action near Fricourt in France on January 6th, 1916. He was aged 29.

Born in July 1886 at Shillington, he was the son of William (died January 1911) and Emma Hare (nee Redman), who were married in 1872. He had not long finished seven years with the 1st Bedfords in South Africa and other parts of the world when war broke out. He was then working at Skefko and was called up as a reservist in August 1914.

Pte Harold Alfred Field, 1722, 1/1st Eastern Mounted Brigade Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, was killed by a stray bullet as he sheltered in a tent during a storm at Gallipoli on November 27th, 1915. He was aged 19.

Pte Field, whose home was as 28 Richmond Hill, Luton, had been employed by the hat firm of Messrs Clay and Sons at Waldeck Road. The son of Charles and Ellen (nee Bone) Field, he was also a member of the Territorials for two years before the outbreak of war.

Pte Arthur Wallace Woodcroft, 18612, 2nd Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action in Flanders on November 27th, 1915. Some military records name him as Arthur Walter Woodcroft.

He was 28 years old and the son of Arthur and Emily Woodcroft. Married in April 1909, he left a widow, Beatrice Maud (nee Mitchell), and two children, Elsie Maud (born December 24th, 1910) and Ronald Arthur (born November 12, 1913). The family lived at 66 May Street, Luton.

Acting L-Cpl Percy William Tilcock, 1485, 1/2nd Field Company, East Anglian Divisional Engineers, died on the hospital ship Glenart Castle on November 26th, 1915, from wounds received at Gallipoli. He was buried at sea in the Mediterranean on the same day.

Aged 20, he was the son of William and Emily Tilcock, of 60 Brunswick Street, Luton, and had worked at Vauxhall Motors before enlisting. He had joined the Engineers in September 1914.

A single man, he had been engaged to a Miss Pedder, of 57 Lyndhurst Road, Luton.

Pte Harry Gentle, 10433, 1st Bedfordshires, was killed in action in Flanders on November 15th, 1915. He was aged 18.

He had joined the Army about four months before war broke out, and prior to enlisting he had worked for Cookson and Co, straw hat manufacturers, of 7 Bute Street, Luton.

A newspaper article describing him as Pte Henry Gentle, said Mrs Gentle, of 17 Adelaide Terrace, Luton, had received letters from his company commander and a friend.

Pte Oswald Simmonds, 7948, 1st Battalion, Loyal North Lancashire Regt, was presumed killed in action on October 31st, 1914. But it was 15 months later before his wife Rose Lilian received official notification of his death.

Pte Simmonds, who was aged about 30, was included in the lists of men who had joined the colours that were printed in the Luton News in 1914. His address was given as 56 May Street, Luton, the address also included on the Luton Roll of Honour.

L-Cpl Arthur Thomas Highton, 3874, 1/5th Bedfords, died in the University War Hospital, Southampton, on November 10th, 1915, after suffering from dysentery at Gallipoli. He was aged 18.

The only son of cabinet maker Frederick George Highton and wife Annie (nee Harris), of Orlingbury, Havelock Road, Luton, he enlisted in the 1/5th Beds Regiment soon after the outbreak of war. He served in the Signals Section under Lieut F. W. Ballance (from Dunstable), and while in Gallipoli won his first stripe.

Pte Alfred Tuffnell, 3/8144, 7th Battalion Beds Regt, died in Flanders on November 4th, 1915. Surprisingly nothing seems to have appeared about him in the local Press around the time of his death, unlike the deaths of two brothers.

Alfred was the third of three sons - Henry, Benjamin plus Alfred - who had still been living with their widowed mother Ann Tuffnell at 15 York Street, Luton, to perish in the war. And a fourth son, George, had died in 1903 following an accident at Hayward Tyler's, where he worked.

Pte Charles Carter, 142, East Anglian Division Cyclist Corps, died of dysentery on October 14th, 1915, while returning from Gallipoli on board the hospital ship HMHS Assaye.

The only son of Mrs Elizabeth Carter, of 112 Hartley Road, Luton, he had enlisted in the 1/5th Bedfords but transferred to the Cyclist Corps earlier in 1915. He sailed for the Dardanelles at the same time as the 1/5th Bedfords.

Pte Charles Whelpton Few, 1889, 1/1st Eastern Mounted Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, died on October 19th, 1915, from dysentery while on board ship in the Mediterranean.

He was one of three sons of Great Northern Railway stationmaster Thomas Henry Few [born in Montreal, Canada], of Station House, Bute Street, and Hyde House, Hart Hill, Luton. He joined the Eastern Mounted Brigade Field Ambulance, RAMC, after the outbreak of war.

Pte George Hutchings, 4229, 1/5th Beds Regt, was killed in action on August 16th, 1915, aged 20, The son of William and Sarah Hutchings, of Canning Street, Bedford, he had come to the Luton area to be engaged on harvesting work at Eaton Green in 1914.

He enlisted in the Bedfords in Luton and struck up a close friendship with Pte Herbert Stanley Toyer, of 22 Duke Street, Luton. During the three months or so of drilling at Luton under Major (then Capt) Lathom, Pte Hutchings made his home with Pte Toyer's parents at 7 Burr Street.