Dunstable Man Killed in German Prison Camp

High Street North, Dunstable c.1910 [Z1306/36/8/8]

Sunday 22nd December 1918: A fellow prisoner reports that Private James Baxter, the husband of a Dunstable woman, was murdered at the end of September by a guard at the German prison camp where he was held at Freiburg. Private F. Bungay of the North Staffordshire Regiment reports that “While we were working the guard yelled out to Baxter, who, having a slight cold, did not hear at once, but he afterwards started to run, and being weak from want of food, stumbled at the bank. The guard then went forward and beat him with the butt of his rifle, and then shot him through the back, the bullet reaching his heart. It was awful to see a chum murdered in cold blood like that.”

Private Bungay hid behind some bushes and saw the guard leave to give the alarm and fetch the doctor. While the guard was gone he took out Baxter’s pocket book to get his address; he found a photo of Baxter with a child but had to put it back again. The affair was hushed up and guard claimed he killed Baxter in self-defence, but Bungay insists this was a lie as Baxter had his back to the guard. Private James Stewart, who has just returned to his home in Perth, says that when he arrived at Freiburg soon after the matter was being widely talked about at the camp; a number of prisoners told him that Baxter had been set upon by the guards after being accused of picking and eating blackberries he was gathering for the Germans to make tea from. Pioneer Baxter served his apprenticeship as a lithographer in Dundee, but joined up at Bedford in August 1917. He leaves a widow, the daughter of Mr. J. H. Proverbs of High Street North, Dunstable, and a young son.

Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 24th December 1918

News of More Casualties

Beaudesert Boys’ Council School 1913 [Z50/72/21]

Thursday 28th November 1918: Tragically the end of the War has not meant the end of bad news for the families of soldiers. News of two men killed in the very last days of the fighting has now reached Leighton Buzzard, along with confirmation of the death of a third, and a report that a fourth man has died from the effects of influenza. Private Leslie Johnson, the nephew of Mr. Thomas Munday of Bridge Street, was killed on November 4th. He had worked in the Income Tax Office, London, but took up farming owing to ill health and for a short time was employed in the local area. He joined up at the age of just 17. His brother, Charles Rowland Johnson, the son-in-law of Mr. Henry Chapman Furlong, was killed in October 1917.[1]

Private Tom Hyde of the Middlesex Regiment was killed in action on 7th November, just four days before the signing of the Armistice. The chaplain of his battalion has written to his wife telling her that her husband was killed instantaneously by a shell and suffered no pain. Private Hyde was the son of Mr. and Mrs William Hyde of East Street, where his wife and child now live at number 28. Before joining up he worked for Mr. W. G. Willis, builder. A year ago he was wounded in the knee, and as the joint remained stiff he was sent to Ireland on garrison duty. During the last “push” he was again sent out to France. He was 27 years of age, and a member of the Leighton Buzzard Excelsior Band.

Private R. Miles of the 8th Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry, formerly a Trooper in the 17th Lancers and the Bedfordshire Yeomanry, the son of Richard and Annie Miles - now of Leighton Buzzard but previously of Wicken in Northamptonshire - had been reported wounded and missing. He has now been officially reported killed. His elder brother was seriously wounded on the Somme.[2]

Sapper Samuel Walter Stevens of 12, Plantation Road, was serving with the Royal Engineers when he was admitted to a casualty clearing station in France on 8th November. He died on the 13th from pneumonia following influenza. Sapper Stevens was an old boy of Beaudesert School and worked for Messrs. Adams and Whiting as a bricklayer before joining the Army in 1915. After nine months’ service in France he was operated on for appendicitis; he returned to France after recovering from the surgery. He was 28 years old and leaves a wife and young daughter.

Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 26th November 1918

[1] Charles Rowland Johnson of the 1st Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment died on 17th October 1917, aged 32. His wife, Jessie Frances Johnson, was living at 14 High Street, Leighton Buzzard. His brother is listed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as Martin Leslie Johnson, aged 19. In 1911 Charles Rowland Johnson was living at 18 Bridge Street, Leighton Buzzard, with his uncle Thomas Henry Munday and working for him as a jeweller’s assistant.

[2] Apparently Reginald Miles of the 8th Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry, whose death on 15th October 1917 is recorded on the Tyne Cot Memorial.

Luton Soldier Killed While Waiting for Leave

 A float by the Davis Gas Stove Co. Ltd., Diamond Foundry, taking part in the Luton Peace Day parade on 19th July 1919 [Z1306/75/19/19]

Tuesday 5th November 1918: The parents of Sapper William H. Trotter have received the following letter informing them that their son had been killed as he waited for a medical pass before coming home on leave: 

“He was granted leave on October 7th, and proceeded to the medical station to pass the doctor and while waiting there he was killed outright by a shell. He was buried the same day where he fell, near Passchendaele. I can assure you that the loss of your son is greatly felt by the whole of my company … A cross will be erected over his grave by his comrades.”[1]

Sapper Trotter was educated at Surrey Street School in Luton and was employed at the Diamond Foundry before the War. He was a member of the Mount Tabor Primitive Methodist Church, won prizes for cross country running and was a member of the St. John Ambulance Society. He volunteered to serve with the East Anglian Royal Engineers in April 1915 and went out to France in autumn 1917.

Source: Luton News, 7th November 1918

[1] It would appear that Sapper Trotter’s body was subsequently moved as he is now buried in the Tyne Cot Cemetery at West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

Last Messages from Dying Soldiers

Corporal William Hart

Friday 11th October 1918: News of her husband’s death came as a great shock to Mrs. Elizabeth Hart of Caddington. Her husband, Corporal William Hart of Caddington, was badly wounded in the left arm on Sunday 22nd September. His arm was amputated to the elbow, but he was able to write a message to his wife with his right: “My love to all; keep smiling”. However, he succumbed to his injuries and died in hospital at Rouen on 1st October. A former stoker at the Luton Gas Works, Corporal Hart had joined the Army in October 1914. He was invalided home and spent a year in a London hospital. He had only been back in France for eleven weeks when he received the fatal wound.

Twenty one year old Private Bernard Bone of New Town Street, Luton, has also died of wounds. Before the war he worked for Messrs. Kent and was a member of the Territorials. He served with the East Anglian Royal Engineers until a recent transfer to the Cheshire Regiment. He had been wounded three times and had suffered from trench fever. The chaplain of the Canadian Casualty Clearing Station where he died wrote to his mother: “He was struck by a shell from the enemy causing bad fractures of both legs, and his hands and face were slightly wounded. The fearful shock to his whole nervous system was an alarming factor. He was quite cheerful at first. Everything that the best surgeons and nurses could do was done for your dear boy … When I asked him what message I should send to you he simply said, ‘Give her my love and tell her that I did my duty for God and country, and if God sees fit to take me I am not afraid of death.’ … He saved others; himself he could not save.”

Source: Luton News, 17th October 1918

Leighton Buzzard Casualties

North Street, Leighton Buzzard c.1911 [Z1306/72/12/6]

Sunday 6th October: The tide of the war appears to have turned in favour of the Allies and there is real hope that victory is in sight; however, the toll of those killed and wounded continues to rise. Second Lieutenant Vivian Willis, of the Leighton Buzzard solicitors firm W. G. and V. V. Willis, has been wounded while serving with the Tank Corps. He had a lucky escape when a piece of shell flattened a whistle and a watch in his breast pocket and passed down his side, wounding him in both arms and the right thigh, side and hand. He is in hospital at Epsom and is expected to make a complete recovery.

Leading Seaman Frederick Brazier of 3 Friday Street was badly burned in the face, arms and body while serving on a naval ship three weeks ago. He is in hospital at Deal and although the burns are healing it has now been discovered that he has a broken left arm. He has served fifteen years in the Navy and was home on leave from the Mediterranean just a few weeks ago. His wife visited him in hospital and found him cheerful. The son of another resident of Friday Street, Private Harold Butcher of the Suffolk Regiment, is convalescing from the effects of gas. He served for six months in France before being sent to Palestine two years ago, and had only returned to the Western Front within the last three months.

The families of two soldiers now known to have been killed in action have undergone very different experiences, with one enduring a long wait and the other a sudden loss. Private Joseph George Jordan, the husband of Mrs Daisy Jordan of Ivy Cottage, Vandyke Road has been missing for virtually a year. She has finally been notified by the War Office that he is believed to have been killed on or soon after 9th October last year.[1] Mr. and Mrs. George Day of 27 Hockliffe Road have heard that their nineteen year old son, Trooper Cyril George Day, was killed on 5th September, only three weeks after arriving in France.

Sadly enemy action is not the only cause of death for soldiers serving in France. Private Alfred Joseph Dudley, whose parents live in North Street, joined the Army two years ago, and as his fitness only fell into the Class B1 category he was placed in the Royal Army Medical Corps. Service with the Field Ambulance appears to have been too much for his constitution, which was never strong, and he has died of dysentery. He leaves a widow and a three year old daughter.

Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 8th October 1918

[1] The Commonwealth War Graves Record for Private Jordan gives his date of death as 9th October 1917. He is commemorated at the Tyne Cot Memorial, indicating that his body was never found.

Leighton Buzzard and Linslade Casualties

Vandyke Road, Leighton Buzzard 1914 [Z1306/72/13/1]

Saturday 21st September 1918: News has been received that two more Leighton Buzzard soldiers have been wounded and a Linslade soldier killed. Private William Hyde of the Canadian Machine Gun Battalion, whose home is in Vandyke Road, is now recovering from a wounded arm at the New Military Hospital in Gravesend. Lance-Corporal Lawrence Cook of the Bedfordshire Regiment, the son of Mr. John Cook of 13 Hartwell Grove, has been wounded for the third time and is now in a London hospital being treated from a gas shell wound in the face. Lance-Corporal Cook joined the Army less than two years ago; he received bullet wounds in the hand and thigh in August 1917, and in March he was shot in the leg. One of his brothers has been discharged from the Army due to wounds.

Private Peter Smith of 52 Old Road, Linslade, was killed in action on August 22nd fighting with the London Regiment in France. He was 18 years and 6 months old and had joined the Army in February. He had only been at the Front for twelve days when he was killed. Before joining up he was employed as an engine cleaner on the railway. Three of his brothers have also served in the Army: one was reported missing in April, another is now in Egypt, and the third is in France.[1]

Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 24th September 1918

[1] His older brother William Smith was killed in action on 13th April 1918 while serving with the Royal  Warwickshire Regiment.

Bedford Soldier Gassed

Signaller Sydney S. Darrington

Thursday 29th August 1918: Signaller Sydney S. Darrington, the elder son of Mr and Mrs J. W. Darrington of The Cedars, St. John’s Street, Bedford has died in France. Signaller Darrington was an old boy of Bedford Modern School, well known for his sporting activities; he was a member of the Bedford Swimming Club, the Hockey Club, and the Argyll Football Club. After leaving school he joined the staff of Messrs. Dudeney and Johnstone where he worked for ten years. Just before the war his father retired from The Café in St. John’s Street, and the business was taken over by Sydney and his brother Percy. Both joined the Army: Sydney was attached to the Kite Balloon Section of the Royal Flying Corps, and Percy joined the Howitzer Brigade. Before going to France in January 1916 Sydney married his wife Alice, and they have a 20 month old daughter. When he returned to France from leave last August he was transferred to the Sherwood Forresters. Despite spending many months in the trenches, Sydney had not been wounded until Saturday 17th August, when he was badly gassed. His wife received a telegram telling her that he was in hospital and advising her to travel to France. She and her mother-in-law left Bedford on the Monday morning, but when they arrived in London they received the news that Signaller Darrington had died.

Source: Bedfordshire Standard, 23rd August 1918

A Conspiracy Theory

Noel Pemberton Billing 1916 [Wikipedia]

Thursday 6th June 1918: During the recent libel trial of Noel Pemberton Billing M.P.,  it was suggested that the deaths in battle of Major Evelyn de Rothschild of Ascott (near Linslade) and the Honorable Neil Primrose last year (the son of Lord Rosebery of Mentmore Towers) were in fact murder. This crime was supposedly carried out because the two men knew of the so-called German “Black Book”, which is said to list the names of 47,000 men who are being blackmailed by the German High Command because of their homosexuality. Mr Pemberton Billing is the publisher of The Vigilante magazine (formerly The Imperialist), which is well known for its anti-Semitism and regularly claims that Britain is the victim of a Jewish and homosexual conspiracy.[1]

Lieutenant-Colonel the Honorable F. H. Cripps, D.S.O., the commanding officer of Major de Rothschild and the Honorable Neil Primrose, writes:

“In the recent trial a statement was made that two officers in the regiment were murdered from the rear in the Palestine campaign. I desire to give an absolute and unqualified denial to this foul suggestion against the honour of the regiment and of two of my brother officers, who fell under Turkish fire while leading their men with great gallantry on two different occasions. Both Major Evelyn de Rothschild and Captain the Hon. Neil Primrose were near me when they fell, and in tribute to their memory I wish to make the most positive statement in contradiction of the abominable suggestion made at the recent trial. I hope that for the honour of the regiment you will make my statement as widely known as possible.”

Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 11th June 1918

[1] Pemberton Billing was sued by American actress Maud Allen, who played the lead role in a private performance of Oscar Wilde’s play Salome, after Pemberton Billing suggested she was a lesbian. Oscar Wilde’s former lover Lord Alfred Douglas was called as a witness to the danger posed by Wilde and his works. Pemberton Billing won the case.

Death of Private John Quick

Saturday 25th May 1918: The mother of Private Francis John Quick of the Middlesex Regiment, who died of wounds earlier this week, has received the following letter of sympathy from the Captain of his Company:

“I had known Private Quick for a very long time, and always considered him, both as a soldier and a sportsman, one of the best men I ever had in the company. He was wounded whilst on a bicycle carrying an important message, and it will possibly be some slight consolation to you to know that the whole thing occurred just outside one of our officers’ messes, where he received immediate attention and was in hospital within 20 minutes. I visited him in hospital about 10 minutes later and stayed with him until the doctor was ready to dress his wounds properly. Your son was quite conscious and able to speak to me and did not seem to be suffering greatly. His last words to me were “cheerio!” and I promised to visit him again next day, which I did, but unfortunately he had passed away a few hours earlier. All who came in contact with your son after he was wounded are high in their praise as to his conduct throughout. Within the last hour I have been over to visit his grave. It is all very peaceful, many miles from the line. He lies amongst many of his late comrades, and the cross next to his bears the name of a Captain in a very famous division. It is a beautifully kept ground and you may feel quite sure in your mind that your son’s grave will receive every necessary attention.”

Mrs. Quick lives at 92, Bassett Road, Leighton Buzzard. Her son was twenty years old and serving with the 11th Entrenching Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment.

Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 28th May 1918

[1] Private Quick is buried at the Duisans British Cemetery at Etrun, near Calais.

Luton Town Footballer Killed in Action

Arthur Wileman

Tuesday 14th May 1918: The news was received today by Mr. S Arnold of 44 Kenilworth Road that Luton Town footballer Arthur Wileman has been killed in action. Mr. Wileman’s wife had lived at that address for some time both before and after her marriage; she is now at her home in Somerset. No further details have yet been received.

Arthur Wileman came from a footballing family at Newhall, South Derbyshire. He began his career with Newhall Swifts, before he and his brother joined Burton United, where they gained reputations as dangerous forwards. From there they moved to Chelsea, but were not successful there and after two seasons they moved on. Arthur spent a season with Millwall before joining Luton Town in 1912. Although on the small side he was a strong player with great shooting power. In 1913-14 he scored 33 goals for the club, becoming their second highest scorer. He was one of eight men from Luton Town who joined the Footballers’ Battalion in December 1914. Due to an injury to his knee he was not sent to France until 1916, when he transferred to the Royal Sussex Regiment. In February last year the Club Secretary received a letter from him from the Front, where he was serving with another Luton player, Arthur Roe. He was promoted to acting sergeant major, and just before Christmas was awarded the Military Medal for gallantry. He turned down the offer of a commission, preferring to remain in the ranks.

Source: Luton News, 16th May 1918

News from Eaton Bray

High Street, Eaton Bray c.1905 [Z1306/39/2/2]

Saturday 27th April 1918: News has been received in Eaton Bray of two deaths, a prisoner and a wedding. Mr. Lewis Ruffett has been informed that his son, Private Fred Ruffett of the Bedfordshire Regiment was killed on 24th March, only two weeks after returning from leave. Private Ruffett had enlisted under the Derby Scheme in February 1916 and was sent to France in April 1917. His brother lost a leg in France eighteen months ago. Corporal Charley Chanin of the Lancers was killed in action a day earlier, on 23rd March. Corporal Chanin enlisted at the beginning of the war and served in Ireland during the 1916 rebellion. The mother of Lance-Corporal William Neville has received a card from her son telling her that he is now a prisoner of war at Cassel, in Germany. He was the first man from the village of Eaton Bray to join up, in September 1914.

Happier news comes from Canada, where Miss Annie Hebbes, the second daughter of Mr. J. A. Hebbes of Eaton Bray has marries Mr. H. G. Tice of Truax, Saskatchewan. The wedding took place at Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan on 22nd March. The bride’s brother, who has been farming in Alberta, Canada for some years was present. The new Mrs. Tice was formerly the assistant matron at Leighton Buzzard Workhouse.

Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 30th April 1918

Newly Married and Decorated Bedford Soldier Killed

Ernest Fulford

Sunday 21st April 1918: With intense fighting continuing on the Western Front news of local casualties continues to arrive with terrible frequency. These include Bedford soldier Sergeant Ernest Walter Fulford of the Royal Engineers, who was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal on 28th December 1917. On 16th January while home on a short leave he married Miss Edith May Whitmore at St. Cuthbert’s Church, Bedford.  Sergeant Fulford was born in Bedford and educated at the Goldington Road Schools. Before the war he worked at the Goldington Road Steam Laundry as an assistant engineer. His parents live at 116 Bower Street and his wife at 6 Greenhill Street. Sergeant Fulford was killed by a shell. His commanding officer wrote to his mother that “I have always regarded him more as a friend rather than as my sergeant. He was a very fine character, keen, brave and conscientious. His death is a personal loss to all who knew him.”

Source: Bedfordshire Times, 19th April 1918

Luton Mons Veteran Gassed

The Place Leopold in Mons [Z1247/5]

Thursday 4th April 1918: Mr. Frederick Budd of 54  Lea Road, Luton, has heard that his son, Lance-Corporal Frederick V. Budd of the Royal Munster Fusiliers, has been badly gassed and is now recovering in a Scottish hospital. Lance-Corporal Budd is a regular soldier who joined the Connaught Rangers seven years ago. At the beginning of the war he volunteered to serve with a cyclist corps in dangerous conditions. Although his corps suffered high casualties he survived the retreat from Mons safely. He served through the Irish rebellion, then returned to the trenches. He suffered two slight wounds, and a more serious wound to the knee from a shrapnel shell last October. Very few of the Old Contemptibles who fought at Mons are still on active service.[1]

Source: Luton News, 4th April 1918

[1] Emperor Wilhelm II was reported to have called the British Expeditionary Force of August 1914 a “contemptible little army”. Hearing this, survivors of the early battles took to calling themselves the Old Contemptibles.

Explosion at Munitions Works

George Kent Ltd Munitions Workers, 1916 [Z1306/75/17/21]

Saturday 2nd March 1918: The Press Bureau has issued a statement concerning an explosion which took place in a munition works in the Home Counties, resulting in injuries to some of the girl workers. No further information has been received. [1]

Source: Luton News, 7th March 1918

[1] The explosion took place at the George Kent works at Chaul End on Friday 1st March. Four girls died of the injuries they received: May Constable, Lillian G. Harris, Kate Tomkins, and Florence Warnes. While more minor incidents were usually reported in the local press in some detail, it seems that the authorities were keen to suppress news of a tragedy on this scale.

Luton Doctor Awarded Military Cross

Dr. Robert Daniels Bell [Luton News]

Monday 4th February 1918: Luton has been delighted to hear the news that well-known local doctor Robert Daniels Bell of Dunstable Road, who was last heard of a year ago while he was home on leave from Egypt  has been awarded the Military Cross. Captain Bell was serving with the Royal Army Medical Corps on Christmas Eve when the brigade to which he was attached was severely bombarded. He was kept hard at work attending to the wounded, while gas shells burst around him. He took off his gas mask to give better attention to a bleeding soldier, but was gassed before he could put it on again and himself became a casualty. He is now at home and progressing excellently. His brigade took the unusual course of recommending him for immediate honours.

Source: Luton News, 31st January 1918

The Last Great Cavalry Charge

Bedfordshire Yeomanry, High Street, Leighton Buzzard 1914-1918 [Z1432/3/20/4]

Friday 4th January 1918: Further news has been received of the action in Palestine during which Lord Rosebery’s younger son, the Honorable Neil Primrose M.P., was killed and Major Evelyn de Rothschild of Ascott House fatally wounded. During this war the tradition of charging the enemy on horseback has largely disappeared, but the two cousins were killed in what must surely be one of the last cavalry charges in the old style.* Captain John Douglas Young M.C. of the Royal Bucks Hussars writes:

“We have made two charges, which are being talked about all along the line. We charged in line over two miles of perfectly flat plain, swept by shells and machine gun fire. Our men and horses were mad with excitement. The enemy, about 3,000 strong, were in an almost impregnable position, on top of a long and very steep ridge, 200 feet high. We went straight to the top and into them. We captured all their machine guns, enormous quantities of ammunition, two guns, and 1200 prisoners, and we never stopped to the count the dead.”

During the second charge  “We went part of the way dismounted, and then led our horses up, and charged again. Probably if we had not we should have been wiped out, as they outnumbered us six to one. But they hate the sight of our swords, and just as we reached the crest of the mountain (at least it looked like a mountain) they cleared. It was a wonderful sight. Neil Primrose was killed in the last charge, and Evelyn Rothschild (since dead) was dangerously wounded in the first. We buried poor Neil this morning. He was a very gallant fellow.”

Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 8th January 1918

* The charge of the 6th Mounted Brigade at El Mughar in Palestine on 13th November 1917 was indeed the last great British cavalry charge, although later charges took place in Syria in 1918 with Indian and Australian troops. 

Major Evelyn de Rothschild and Hon. Neil Primrose MP Killed

Ascott House, Wing [Wikimedia]

Sunday 25th November 1917: Major Evelyn de Rothschild of Ascott, near Linslade, has died of wounds while fighting in Palestine. Major Evelyn was called home in May when his father, Mr. Leopold de Rothschild was seriously ill, but did not arrive in time to see his father alive or to attend the funeral. He stayed in England for some time before returning to Egypt with his cousin, the Honorable Captain Neil Primrose  who had obtained a commission in the same squadron. Major Evelyn spent much of his life at Ascott where he was able to indulge his great love of horses and hunting. He rarely missed a meet of the Rothschild stag hounds and was very popular in the field. His funeral took place at Cairo on Monday.

Tragically the Hon. Neil Primrose, the younger son of Lord Rosebery of Mentmore Towers, was killed in the same action as his cousin. He had served as the Liberal Member of Parliament for Wisbech since 1910 and had held office as Parliamentary Under-Secretary to the Foreign Office, as Military Secretary to the Ministry of Munitions and as a Whip. In 1915 he married Lady Victoria Alice Louise Stanley, the daughter of Minister for War Lord Derby; he leaves an infant daughter.

Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 20th and 27th November 1917

Blood Donation by Bedford Soldier

Carluke War Memorial (© Kevin Rae, Wikimedia)

Friday 23rd November 1917: In a heroic act of self-sacrifice a soldier from Bedford has allowed a large quantity of his blood to be transferred to a dying soldier in France. Sapper H. E. Greenaway of the Royal Engineers, the son of Mr. E. Greenaway, a dairyman of Iddesleigh Road, was a member of the Salvation Army Band at Bedford before the war. He joined the Royal Engineers Signal Service on 30th September 1914 and has been in France since September 1915, attached to a number of different companies. He was wounded in July this year. While in hospital at Rouen a volunteer was needed to give a blood transfusion to Gunner Andrew Selkirk of the Royal Field Artillery, who had been wounded at about the same time. Sapper Greenaway came forward and a large amount of his blood was taken. Sadly, the transfusion was not able to save the life of Gunner Selkirk, from Carluke in Scotland. He had been brought into the hospital with an extremely severe wound to his back and left leg from a shell explosion, which was followed by blood poisoning. The soldier’s widow said in an interview that she did not know how to thank Greenaway for the sacrifice he made to try to save her husband, “a noble act” which showed the quality of many of the men fighting for their country.

Source: Bedfordshire Standard, 23rd November 1918

Funeral of Leighton Buzzard Soldier

Beaudesert Boys’ Council School 1913 [Z50/72/21]

Wednesday 14th November 1917: The funeral of Company Sergeant Major Walter Dennis Toe was held at Leighton Buzzard this afternoon. His coffin was covered with a Union Jack and carried on a gun carriage, and Royal Engineers from Dunstable provided a firing party. Three volleys were fired over his grave at Vandyke Road Cemetery and the Last Post was sounded. “Dennis” Toe was just 20½ years old and the youngest of six brothers serving in the army in Egypt, France and England. Their late father, Frank Toe, served for 22 years in the Kings Rifle Regiment before becoming a postman in Leighton Buzzard. Dennis Toe joined the Northamptonshire Regiment early in 1914 and was sent to France eighteen months ago. He was awarded the Military Medal for gallantry at the Minament Trench in February and was offered a commission, which he refused.  He was severely wounded in the head in August, and died in St. George’s Hospital, London on Saturday following an operation. Among the tributes placed at his grave was a shield sent from his old school inscribed “Beaudesert School salutes one of its heroes”.

Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 20th November 1917; Luton News, 15th November 1917; Rollof Honour Leighton Buzzard 

Sapper Percy Cobb Dies of Wounds

Sapper Percy W. Cobb

Saturday 27th October 1917: News has reached Bedford that Sapper Percy W. Cobb of the East Anglian Royal Engineers died of wounds at Lord Derby’s Military Hospital, Warrington on 22nd October. Before the war Percy Cobb worked as a fitter for Messrs. W. H. Allen. Following Kitchener’s call for volunteers he joined the East Anglian Royal Engineers on 31st December 1914 and was sent to France in the following April. He remained on active service until August 4th 1916 when he was severely wounded by shrapnel in the legs and body during fighting in Delville Wood. He lay in the open for many hours before a stretcher party could reach him, losing a great deal of blood. After being brought back to England Sapper Cobb underwent ten operations, but the effects of poisoned shrapnel left little hope for recovery. He was visited on a number of occasions by his wife, and arrangements had been made for him to be moved to the Voluntary Aid Detachment Hospital at Bedford, but this ultimately proved impossible.

Sapper Cobb’s funeral, which took place at Bedford Cemetery on Saturday, was attended by a number of workmen both from W. H. Allen’s Queen’s Engineering works and from the Grafton Works, where his father, Mr. G. W. Cobb , is a foreman. The cortege left Sapper Cobb’s home at 23 Brereton Road with the band of the Royal Engineers in front, and the coffin, covered by the Union Jack, on a gun carriage pulled by six horses. The family are well known local supporters of the Conservative party, and a brother of Sapper Cobb has served with the Territorials since the beginning of the war.

Source: Bedfordshire Times, 2nd November 1917