The story of Second-Lieutenant John (Jack) Hobbs, the son of a Toddington butcher, was one of heroism, romance and tragedy. It culminated in the posthumous award of the Military Cross, gained for gallant and distinguished service in the field on May 31st, 1915.

The Luton News devoted many column inches to the man who enlisted in the Royal Scots as a private and rose to become a second-liutenant, fell in love with and married a women with whom their days together were so few, and died on June 28th, 1915, from wounds sustained on the battlefield.

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.