Lance Corporal Harry Hack, 9564, 1st Battalion, Beds Regt, was killed in action near Wulvergem in Belgium on January 8th, 1915. He was aged 26.

For his widow, who was living at 71 Ivy Road, Luton, it was the first of two tragedies within a week - the couple's only child, Harry Robert, died on January 14th, aged just five months.

Pte Frederick William Miller, 7469, 1st Battalion, Beds Regt, was killed in action near Ypres on November 7th, 1914. He was aged 35.

Born at Writtle, near Chelmsford, on November 5th, 1879, he moved from Essex to Luton shortly before the First World War and worked for about three years at the Skefko Ball Bearing Co Ltd, Leagrave Road. In 1912 he married widow Salome Annie Standbridge, who had a family of five or six children, and they lived at 70 Highbury Road, Luton.

Pte Horace Alfred Ward, 7269, 1st Battalion, Beds Regt, was killed in action at the first Battle of Ypres on November 14th, 1914. He was aged 30 and the husband of Alice, of 219 Castle Street, Luton, whom he married in 1905.

Pte Ward was called up as a reservist at the outbreak of war - a fortnight before his time in the Reserve would have expired. He was employed by Luton Corporation at the Electricity Station, and before that by Mr C. J. Worsley, engineer, of Melson Street, for a long period.

Pte Bert Spacey, 10281, A Company, 1st Battalion, Beds Regt, was killed in action at Ypres on November 7th, 1914. His age is recorded as 19.

Born in 1894, he lived with his mother Ellen and brother Percy, at 1 East Avenue, Park Street, Luton.

In the 1911 Census, Ellen, aged 38, is described as a straw hat machinist, Bert as a straw plait dyer, and Percy, then aged just 14, as a foundry worker.

Pte Sidney James Whittemore, 6710, of the 1st Battalion, Beds Regt, was killed in action in the neighbourhood of Ypres on November 7th, 1914. He was aged 34.

Pte Whittemore, whose home address was 10 Park Way, High Town, Luton, left a widow, Edith, and three little children. His parents, Mr and Mrs George Whittemore, lived at Stopsley.

He was a reservist who prior to the war was working for Messrs T. Balmforth and Co, boilermakers, Pondwicks Road, Luton. After being called up at the outbreak of war he was for a short time with the 3rd Battalion, Beds Regt, at Felixstowe.

Brian was born 11th March 1889, the only son of Hugh Cumberland J.P Land Agent & Auctioneer & Jeanie nee Clarke. In 1901 he was at a boys boarding school in Harpenden, but in the 1911 census he is home with his sisters, mother & father at The Lynchets, Hart Hill.

Before joining the Bedfordshire regiment, he passed his exams to become a member of the Auctioneers & Surveyors Institute so he could join the family business who's offices were in Castle Street.

Horace Arthur Goodship was the fifth son of George and Ann Goodship of Stopsley, who had three sons serving on the Western Front.

Horace was a Private in the 1/5th Bedfordshire Regiment, and prior to joining up worked as a straw hat polisher for Mr. Frenay Pirotte, on Leagrave Road. He was well known as a footballer for Stopsley and as a general good sportsman with an avid interest in cricket.

He was killed in action on August 16th during the Gallipoli Campaign.

Charles was born 8th March 1885 in Kobe, Japan, the eldest son of the Right Reverend Hugh James Foss, Bishop of Osaka.

He enrolled into the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst in 1902 and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Bedfordshire Regiment in 1904. Charles Foss was serving in the 2nd Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment in South Africa when the war broke out and the battalion made it to the Western Front in time for the First Battle of Ypres. He was one of only four Officers to survive the battle during which he won his Distinguished Service Order (medal).

Second Lieutenant Collings-Wells was commissioned into the Bedfordshire Regiment on 14th March 1904 having previously served with the Hertfordshire Militia. He became a Lieutenant in September 1904 and Captain in January 1907. On the outbreak of war he was recalled to the colours and arrived in France with the Bedfordshire Regiment on the 22nd August 1914, where he served in the 2nd Battalion once they had arrived from South Africa. By October 1916 he was promoted to acting Lieutenant-Colonel in command of the 4th Battalion and remained at that post until his death.

Christopher Augustus Cox was born Christmas Day 1889 in Kings Langley. In 1912 he married Maud Swan with whom he eventually had eight children. Christopher enlisted into the army weeks after war broke out and became a Private and Stretcher Bearer in the 7th battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment.