Pte Walter Brazier, 40379, 2nd Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment, was killed in action at Chateau Wood, near Ypres, on July 31st, 1917, the date of the start of the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele). He was aged 21 and left a widow, Olive.

Pte Brazier had been in the Army for only six months, and just 11 weeks in Flanders. Letters from comrades to his wife said he was hit by a piece of shell and died instantly.

Percy Gurney was born in Luton in January 1893. He was 1 of 8 children born to Tom & Emily.

In 1911 Percy is 17 & living at 48 Hartley Road with his family that are all working from home in the hat trade. His father Tom is 42 & a self employed straw hat manufacturer, his mother Emily, 40 & 19 year old sister Emily Rosa, are both straw hat finishers & younger brother, 16 year old Frederick George, is a straw hat machinist. His 12 year old sister Lizzie is at school.

Pte Albert Stratton, 3/10395, 2nd Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment, was killed in action in France on June 2nd, 1916. He was born in High Town in 1877.

The son of the late Arthur and Sarah Stratton, of Back Street, the former iron moulder had served in the Grenadier Guards for 12 years before re-enlisting with the Northants Regiment in August 1914. He returned to serve in the firing line in France for a second time in April 1916.

James William Swain was born in West Hampstead, Middlesex in 1895.

Aged 16 & working as a butcher's boy in 1911, he is living with his father Jabez 39,  a cab driver, his mother Mary Ann 49 & his 3 brothers Jack 13, Arthur 11 & 9 year old Horace at No 18 Arthur Street.

In 1915 James was working at a munitions factory.

He joined the Northamptonshire regiment on 4th August 1916 & on 8th December 1916 was sent to France.