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.
At the time of the 1911 Census he was living with parents Alfred and Sarah and four brothers and three sisters at 339 Hitchin Road, Round Green. He was listed as a 19-year-old iron moulder.
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.
A telegram received by the parents on November 1st, 1918, said their son was dangerously ill with fever, followed by a second telegram on November 6th to say that he died on October 31st from pneumonia.
Second Cpl Eli Thomas Wilson, 522361, 486th Field Company Royal Engineers, was killed in action in Egypt on April 21st, 1917. He was aged 33 and had been in Egypt for nearly two years.
A letter to his widow, Rose Gertrude Wilson, at 14 Maple Road, Luton, said her husband was at work with a small party when a shell dropped among them, killing Cpl Wilson instantly. He was buried by the Brigade Chaplain, the Rev C. F. Johnson, in the evening.
Sapper Ernest Robinson, 522390, 486th Field Company Royal Engineers, was killed in action in Egypt on March 27th, 1917. Born in 1896, he was an orphan living with step-parents Joseph and Sarah Bent at 54 Boyle Street, Luton.
Ernest had joined up two months after the outbreak of war and was wounded in the leg in training when a trench was blown up. Subsequently he came unscathed through the Gallipoli campaign before being drafted to Egypt with his unit.
Sapper Horace George Andrews, 522510 (3337), 486th Field Company Royal Engineers, was presumed killed in action at Gaza in Egypt on March 27th, 1917. He was initially reported to be wounded and missing with the possibility he had been taken as a prisoner of war by the Turks.
His Captain wrote in a letter to parents Joseph and Barbara Andrews, at 34 Ashburnham Road, that their son had been missing since the night of March 27th. He had last been seen bravely carrying ammunition to the front line, and it was known that it was then he was wounded.
