The reception of the 1/5th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment at the Luton Town Hall on Saturday evening [June 5th, 1915] was responsible for a scene unparalleled in the history of the borough. Never before has the whole battalion been seen in the town, and this in itself made it a noteworthy occasion.
Pte George Jarvis, 9344, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regimen, was killed in action near Hill 60 on May 28th, 1915. He was aged 28.
He had attested with the Bedfords in September 1907 and then spent six or seven years with the 2nd Battalion. He was living at the time at 122 Langley Street, Luton.
He was wounded in the thigh at Ypres and had returned to England for a short sick furlough. He returned to the front about a month before his death.
Luton's cinema scene was still in its infancy when the Great War broke out. The town's first purpose-built cinema, the Anglo American Electric Picture Palace, had opened in Gordon Street in October 1909, followed by the Picturedrome in Park Street in April 1911, the Wellington in Wellington Street in May 1912, the High Town Electric Picture Theatre in August 1912 and the Palace, Mill Street, in December 1912.
Pte Murray Walter Harrison, 2797, 2nd Battalion East Surrey Regiment, was killed in action on April 11th, 1915, about five weeks after going into the firing line. He was aged 22.
The son of Mr and Mrs James Harrison, of 46 Maple Road, Luton, he had enlisted in September 1914 and went to the front during the first week in March. Before the war he had been employed by a Bedford firm.
Pte Francis James Blake, 13406, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action on April 19th, 1915. He was aged 19.
He and his family had moved to Luton from Stamford, Lincolnshire, shortly before the war and he enlisted in the Bedfords in September 1914, serving much of the time at the front.
At the time of the 1911 Census, Francis - along with six sisters and four brothers - was living with parents George and Carrie at 19 Bentley Street, Stamford. His father was a chandler and he was a chandler's apprentice.
Pte Percy Francis Darby, 2676, 1/24th Battalion, County of London Regiment ("The Queen's"), was killed in action in a charge against German trenches near Givenchy on May 26th, 1915. He was aged 19.
He was the son of George and Emily Darby, of 31 Biscot Road. His father was manager of the hat manufacturing factory of Messrs Smith & Small in Bute Street.
Cpl Douglas Blake Brodie, 2433, 1/24th Battalion County of London Regiment ("The Queen's), was killed in action in a great charge on German trenches near Givenchy on May 26th, 1915. He was aged 23.
The son of William and Amelia Brodie, of Rathfarlam, 157 Dunstable Road, Luton, he was among a group of 19 young men from Luton photographed by The Luton News at the Midland Road station on their way to St Albans on September 1st, 1914, to enlist in the Londons. Although named in the newspaper, he was not specifically identified in the W. H. Cox picture at the time.
Cpl Ernest Butterfield, a Lutonian serving with the Australians in Gallipoli, died on May 4th, 1915, of wounds received in action.
Born in Markyate but brought up from a young age in Luton, Cpl Butterfield, service number 79, joined the 15th Battalion, 4th Brigade, Australian Expeditionary Force. He was previously with the Royal Garrison Artillery and served during the Boer War, being in Kimberley during the siege.
Walter was born in 1895. He was 1 of 10 children born to Frederick and Ann Lawrence.
In 1911 Walter is 17 & working as a greengrocer at the family home of 27 Cowper Street, alongside older brother Bertie, 26. There are six other family members living in this six-roomed house, their widowed mother Ann, 54, Minnie 36, a Milliner, Sidney 28, a straw hat blocker, Louise 24 & Carrie 22 are both working as straw hat machinists & 15 year old Charlie is an errand boy.
L-Cpl* Harry Whinnett, 9289, 1st Rifle Brigade, was killed in action on April 26th, 1915. Prior to the war he was a police constable in Grimsby whose mother lived at 103 Frederic Street, Luton.
His wife Annie and three children, who lived at 61 Fraser Street, Grimsby, learned of his death in an official War Office notification.
Harry Whinnett was the first Grimsby policeman to lose his life at the front. He had joined the police in May 1906 and was one of the few reservists in the Grimsby force. He was called up at the outbreak of hostilities.
The promotion of Major Edgar William Brighten, of the 5th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel was announced in The London Gazette on Saturday night (May 15th, 1915).
Pte Alfred Joshua Brown, 3/7316, 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action near Festubert on May 14th, 1915. He was aged 20.
Parents Archer and Elizabeth Brown, of 27 Cobden Street, Luton, were told in a letter from Cpl A. W. Joyce, C Company, 2nd Bedfordshires, that on the afternoon of May 14th they had been under heavy shell fire.
Sgt Walter Henry (Harry) Ford, 9047, Rifle Brigade, was killed in action at Hill 60 on May 3rd, 1915. He lived at 11 May Street, Luton, and left a widow (Minnie Clara) and three children (Doris Emily, Beatrice Maud and Harry). The couple had married at St Paul's Church, Luton, early in 1907
Cpl Charles Smith, 7655, 1st Battalion Beds Regt, died at Base Clearing Hospital on May 8th, 1915, from the effects of poison gas inhaled while fighting at Hill 60.
The 31-year-old had been in the Bedfordshire Regiment for nine years, principally serving in Aden. He then spent three years in the reserve, during which time he worked at J. W. Green's brewery in Luton. But for the war he would have been out of the Army the previous Christmas.
Pte Thomas James Holliman, 18236, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action on May 6th, 1915 (CWGC record, but chums at the time said May 5th). He lived at 404 Hitchin Road, Luton, and was aged 28.
An old Volunteer, he joined the 3rd Battalion Beds Regt just before Christmas 1914 and was quickly transferred to the 1st Bedfords before being sent to France.