Cpl Alec Walter Harris, 23642, 4th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action in the valley of the River Ancre on the Somme on February 4th, 1917. He was just 25 and single.

Born in Luton in 1892, he was the son of labourer Albert and straw hat machinist Selina Harris, of 23 Jubilee Street, Luton. Alec (Alic on his birth registration) was the couple's four son.

Sgt William Ellingham, one of the first Lutonians to be awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, was killed in action on the Somme on August 18th, 1916. He was a son of Arthur and Annie Ellingham, of 8 Jubilee Street, Luton, and served in the 1st Northumberland Fusiliers.

In November 1915 Sgt Ellingham, then a lance corporal, came to England on leave and married Mabel Louisa Ward from Castleford in the Yorkshire town on November 5th. He had been stationed at Pontefract, Yorks, in 1911 and it was while there he probably met Mabel.