Sydney Charles Powell was born in 1882 in Luton.

In 1904 Sydney married Lizzie Gregory.

In 1911 Sydney is 29 years old & living with his family at 52 Ash Road & working as a straw hat packer with A. Hucklesby & Co, by whom he had been employed from the age of 17. Lizzie is 28 & working as a straw hat machinist at home whilst looking after their children, 6 year old Doris & 4 year old Sidney Charles. Lizzie's 73 year old widowed father George Gregory is also living with them in this 4 roomed house.

Reginald Roland Gurney Press was born in St Albans on 4th February 1895, 1 of 3 children born to Frederick Edmond & Lillian Ada.

In 1901 aged 5 years, Reginald is living at 48 North Street, Carshalton, Surrey. His father is 42 years old & working as a tobacconist whilst his 32 year old mother is at home looking after him & his 4 month old sister Rosa.

C H Smith served in The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment). He died on 25th March 1920 & was buried in the Rothesay Road cemetery.

Peter joined the Bedfordshire Regiment, then transferred to the Machine Gun Corps. He saw service in France in November 1914. Peter died on 7th July 1917 & was buried in the cemetery on Rothesay Road.

Pte Charles Frost MM, 15525, Gloucestershire Regiment, died in hospital at Taplow, Bucks, on September 27th, 1918, as the result of a gunshot wound that fractured his right thigh in France on August 11th.

He had spent three weeks in hospital in France before being brought back to England and an anticipated recovery. His body was brought back to Luton and buried at the General Cemetery in Rothesay Road on the afternoon of October 3rd.

Pte Wilfred Tompkins, 57896, 11th Battalion Cheshire Regiment, was killed in action in Belgium on July 12th, 1917. He was within a few days of his 28th birthday.

Second Lieut E. Dixon, of C Company, in a letter to parents Thomas William and Sarah Annie Tompkins at 42 Maple Road, Luton, said their son had joined the Cheshires only on July 11th. On the night of the 12th he was a member of a working party behind the line when a shell burst by him and killed him instantly.

Pte Ernest James Elsdon, 18971, 8th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was reported missing, later killed in action, at Hulluck, near Loos, on July 12th, 1917. He was aged 20 and single.

He had joined up when he was 18 and, after training at Ampthill, went to France in January 1916. He was wounded in the thigh the following April, but had recovered by October and returned to the firing line. He was then wounded in the face and, despite losing the sight of an eye, again returned to action in France, serving in the machine gun section.

Pte Archibald (Archie) Smith, 33872, 8th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, is recorded as having died of wounds in France on July 12th, 1917, at the age of 26. However, Capt Saunders, in charge of his company, wrote in a letter to widowed mother Elizabeth Smith that he had been killed in action by a piece of shrapnel on the evening of July 11th.

Archie Smith had enlisted in the Beds Regiment early in the war and, after training at Newmarket, went to Gallipoli, where he was seriously wounded in the head and shoulder. He also had an attack of dysentery.

Veteran soldier Pte Augustus George Baker, 4176, 1/5th Bedfordshire Regiment, died at his home at 23 Collingdon Street, Luton, on July 12th, 1917, suffering from bronchitis, asthma and heart trouble. He was aged 44.

Pte Arthur Fitzjohn, 025045, 96th Company Army Ordnance Corps, died in the Cambridge Military Hospital, Aldershot, on July 11th, 1917, after several months of ill health. He was aged 31.

Born and bred in St Albans, he joined the Army Ordnance Corps in November 1916 and after that was never in good health. He was first taken suddenly ill while on leave at Luton, and he was treated first in the Bute Hospital and then at Wardown. After that he contracted further illness and died on July 11th in Aldershot.

Pte Joseph Bransome, 22530, 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, died in hospital on July 8th, 1917, from wounds sustained on the battlefield on July 1st. He was aged 33.

John Oliver Ernest Trott was born in Stoke Newington, London in March 1899. He was 1 of 5 children born to Ernest & Grace.

In 1911 John in 12 years old & living at 28 Grove Road Luton with James his 81 year old widowed grandfather a retired straw hat manufacturer. Also living  with him are his 2 aunts, Elizabeth 60 is a milliner & 46 year old Frances Helena a housekeeper. James' 19 year granddaughter Gladys Brown, an assistant dressmaker, is also a member of the household.

Pte George Charles Sharp, 87044, 17th Company Machine Gun Corps (Infantry), was killed in action on June 15th, 1917.

Comrade Pte A. Tew wrote to widow Rose from the Edmonton Military Hospital: "His last word and thought were of his wife and child. He did not suffer any pain as he was shot through the head and was killed instantly just as we were getting relieved from the trenches. It was hard lines, for in another half-hour he would have been out of the danger zone."

Alfred James Stonnell was born in Hulme, Manchester in 1896, 1 of 12 children born to Daniel & Sarah.

Pte John Anderson, 37585, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action in France on June 28th, 1917. It was nearly a further two months before widow Annie learned from a chaplain that her husband's body had been found on the battlefield by a member of another regiment.

The chaplain wrote that Pte Anderson had taken part in the successful attack on enemy trenches on June 28th and was killed as the Bedfords were coming out of the line. He had been shot through the head. John had enlisted in February 1917 and had been in France only six weeks.