Second-Lieut Meredyth Robert Owen Williams, 25th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers, was killed in action in France on March 14th, 1917. He was the younger son of Luton Alderman Herbert Owen Williams, of Farley Lynches, Castle Street [now Farley Hill]. He was a month short of his 23rd birthday.

His commanding officer wrote to parents Herbert and Edith Jane Williams that their son was manning a support trench with his platoon during a German raid at about five o'clock in the morning. The gun fire was terribly heavy, and Lieut Williams was killed by a bursting shell.