Diamond Foundry

Corporal Leonard Euinton

 

Cpl Leonard Euinton, 32990, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action in France by a minenwerfer [trench mortar] on March 16th, 1917. He was aged 28.

A chaplain wrote that he had been killed while holding a post in a front trench. His death must have been instantaneous as the part of the trench in which he was on duty was blown in. He was buried the next day in a little cemetery near the line he was defending, in the presence of a number of his comrades.

Private Robert Watson

 

Pte Robert Watson, 9652, King's Company, 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, died on October 12th, 1915, from wounds sustained in action in France on September 29th. A piece of shrapnel had hit him in the back.

Born in Luton on February 19th, 1881, he was the son of Edmund (died 1889) and Tamar Watson (nee Humphrey).

Private Albert Hawkes

 

Pte Albert Hawkes, 13777, 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, died as a result of wounds received in action on his 30th birthday - September 29th, 1915.

He was the husband of Louisa Elizabeth Hawkes, then living at 8 Tavistock Street, Luton, with two young children - Lily aged four and two-year-old Albert.

Official notification of Pte Hawkes' death arrived in October 1915, saying he had died from gunshot wounds to the abdomen. He had enlisted on September 5th, 1914, and had been in the firing line for six months.

Rifleman Peter Murdoch

 

Rifleman Peter Murdoch, 2634, D Company, 17th Battalion London Regiment, died on September 27th, 1915, from wounds sustained in action in Flanders.

He was a member of a Scottish family that had come to Luton from Falkirk around 1906-7, and was the first member of his platoon to be killed. He was aged 20.

Private Cyril Snoxell

 

Pte Cyril Snoxell, 3099, 1/5th Bedfords, was killed in action on August 16th*, 1915, at Gallipoli. He was aged 18 and the son of Alfred Snoxell, of 84 Grange Road [now St Peter's Road], Luton.

He was a second son of Alfred and Annie Snoxell to perish on the battlefield. One year earlier, Driver Percy Glifford Snoxell, 59028, 68th Battery, Royal Field Artillery, was killed in action in France on August 26th, 1914.

Private Harold Fred Puddephatt

 

Pte Harold Frederick Puddephatt, 3066, A Company, 1/5th Bedfords, was killed in action on August 15th*, 1915. He was aged 21.

The son of Frederick and Emily Puddephatt, of 50 Butlin Road, Luton, he was an old boy of Chapel Street School and worked at the Diamond Foundry before enlistment.

The Luton Reporter and the Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph both said that official notification of the death of August 15th had been received by Mrs Puddephatt on September 8th.

Private Leonard Hurd

 

Pte Leonard Hurd, 3449, 1/5th Bedfords, died on August 16th from wounds sustained at Gallipoli the previous day. The only son of Charles and Elizabeth Hurd, of 32 Beech Road, Luton, he was aged 19 and had been employed at the Diamond Foundry, Dallow Road.

He had joined the Territorials about six months before the outbreak of war, and when drafted to the Front was in Capt Cumberland's Company.

Private John Stenhouse

 

Pte John (#James) Stenhouse, 3553, 1/5th Bedfords, died on a hospital ship on August 18th* from wounds sustained at Gallipoli two days previously. He was buried on "an unnamed island at which the ship called" that later was revealed as Lemnos (East Mudros Military Cemetery).

Private Alexander Graves

 

Pte Alexander Graves, 4489, 1/5th Bedfords, was killed in action at Gallipoli on August 15th*, 1915. He was aged 27 and the son of Mr Henry Graves, of 5 Ferndale Road, Luton.

Marriage records show he had wed Agnes Maud Ray early in 1915 - probably while on leave as he had joined the 1/5th Beds in October 1914. And it was to his wife's mother at 33 York Street, Luton, that Pte R. Lewin, of the Machine Gun Section, wrote with the news of her son-in-law's death.

Private Albert Henry Clark

 

Pte Albert Henry Clark, 10245, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action at Hill 60 on June 10th, 1915. He was aged 22, according to a report at the time.

Pte Clark, the son of Mr James and Emma Clark, of 34 Dumfries Street, Luton, joined the Bedfordshire Regiment four years previously. He had been at the Front since the outbreak of hostilities, and in October 1914 was wounded in the back while on a dangerous errand. His death on June 10th was instantaneous - he was struck on the head by a piece of shell.

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