Pte Charles Joseph Morris, 68395, 17th Company Machine Gun Corps (Infantry), died in the 1st Canadian General Hospital in France on August 28th, 1917, from wounds sustained on August 19th. He was admitted to the hospital the following day.

It was nearly 12 months before the family of Pte Ernest Arthur Godfrey, 60808, 24th Battalion Royal Fusiliers, learned that he had probably been killed in action in France on April 29th, 1917. In August 1917 an appeal was published for any information about him after he had been reported missing on April 29th.

Pte Godfrey, a son of Arthur Frederick and Kitty Godfrey, of 21 Stockwood Crescent, Luton, had married Daisy Emily Going in Luton in the early summer of 1906. The couple has a son, Leslie Gilbert, born later in 1906, and a daughter Daphne Phyllis, born two years later.

Pte Owen Brownlow Dale, 764687, London Regiment (Artists' Rifles), was killed in action by a fragment of shell in France on August 24th, 1917. His father, Pte Owen Clifford Dale, 2494, London Regiment, had also been killed in action, on the Somme in 1916.

Owen Brownlow Dale's mother Annie lived at Brooklands, New Bedford Road, Luton, although the family was originally from Woolwich in London, where the 19-year-old soldier was born.

Pte Alfred Scales, 89760, 44th Field Ambulance Royal Army Medical Corps, died on August 23rd, 1917, of wounds received in action in Flanders. He was aged 36 and left a widow and six children, the youngest (Cissie) born just five days before his death.

Alfred had joined the R.A.M.C. at the Grove Road depot in Luton in September 1914. He was drafted to France in February 1917. He had been taken to the 3rd Canadian Casualty Clearing Station, where he died from wounds to the legs and an arm.

Gunner Frederick Charles Smith, 81322, 65th Howitzer Battery Royal Field Artillery, died on August 10th, 1917, from wounds sustained earlier in the day in action near Armentieres.

In a letter to widowed mother Eleanor Florence Smith at 15 Cowper Street, Luton, Major C. F. Forestier Walker said he had dressed her son's wounds in the afternoon, but Frederick passed away in the late evening after he had been taken to hospital in a motor-car. Before leaving for hospital her son was almost cheerful and expecting to get well again.

Luton-born Sgt Percy Wells, 4484, 7th Regiment, South African Infantry, died from blackwater fever on August 19th, 1917, while serving in East Africa.

He was a son of Harty James and Elizabeth (Lissie) Wells, of 4 Crawley Road, Luton. He enlisted in the Royal Horse Artillery in 1909 and the following year went to South Africa. He was on his way back to England when war was declared and was sent back to Africa, where he was transferred to the South African Infantry and rose through the ranks.

Second Lieut Herbert James Day had served as an observer with the Royal Flying Corps for only about six weeks when he was wounded in aerial combat on Tuesday, August 7th, 1917. He died of his wounds the following day in a casualty clearing station in France.

Sgt Carl Hill, 3/7592, 7th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action in the Third Battle of Ypres on August 16th, 1917. There was no report or family announcement of his death in the local Press, but he is included on the Luton Roll of Honour.

Carl was born in Sandridge, near St Albans, in 1883, the son of James and Eliza Hill. In 1901 he was a boarder in London before moving to Lancashire, where he married Sarah Alice Friar at Prescot, St Helens, in 1910.

It was not until August 1917 that the family of Pte Stanley Thomas Warner, G/15027, 11th Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment, were officially notified that he was presumed to have died on the battlefield on October 21st, 1916.

The 28-year-old had lived with grandparents William and Emma Warner, of 40 Alma Street, Luton for some years before joining the Leicestershire Regiment (5940) in 1915. He was later transferred to the Royal Sussex Regiment while in France before being reported wounded and missing on October 21st, 1916.

Pte Albert King, 87202, 149th Company Machine Gun Corps (Infantry), was killed in action in France on August 3rd, 1917. A letter to widow Louisa Jane said: "Your husband was killed instantaneously by a shell in the early morning, about 2am.

"He with the rest of the team was in a dug-out well behind the front line when their dug-out was hit by a shell. You husband was buried the same day by a padre in a British cemetery, and a cross has been placed over his grave."

Pte William Scrivener, 18757, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment (transferred to 208th Division Employment Corps, Labour Corps - 22240), died probably from shell shock in France when the area he was in came under fire on August 12th, 1917.

It was Capt Stephens, of the Beds Regiment, who wrote to widow Mary Ellen Scrivener at 112 Wenlock Street with the news of her husband's death. He wrote:

Gunner Arthur William Loney, 163241, 32nd Divisional Ammunition Column, Royal Field Artillery, died accidentally in France from a gunshot wound on August 11th*, 1917. He was aged 25 and left a widow and a year-old child.

A chaplain wrote to Mrs Edith May Loney at 169 Wellington Street, Luton, to say he had laid her husband to rest. Gunner Loney was accidentally killed on Sunday night (August 12th*). No further details of the incident were included.

Sgt Arthur William Groves, 9643, 6th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action in Belgium on August 6th, 1917. He is commemorated on the Luton Roll of Honour but may not have had much association with the town as no local address is recorded for him.

His death also appears to have gone unrecorded in the Luton Press, but his step-father was born in the town and members of his family lived here after the war.

Luton-born Company Sgt-Major Harry Parks (DCM), P/154, 16th Rifle Brigade, was killed in action near Ypres in Belgium on July 31st, 1917. His home was in London, and he left a widow and six children.

For the second time in his Army career, Pte Alfred George Cook, 200573, 1/5th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was reported missing. It was July 20th, 1917, two years after he had been reported missing at Gallipoli, then said to have been killed, then wounded and finally, after six days of wandering, he rejoined his regiment.