Samuel Horsley and his wife Lydia Coe, both of Desborough, had at least twelve children including the five remembered on this memorial.

Joseph was the couple's eldest child born in 1882.

Quite a lot is known about Reuben, the second child, as his extensive army records have survived. He married Geneva (or Jane) Shortland in 1903. His four children were born before he joined the Northamptonshire Regiment in 1914; the youngest, named Mildred (perhaps after his baby sister who lived only 5 weeks?) died after a bout of measles at only 8 months. Reuben was injured once, in 1916, and was killed in a tragic accident in 1918. The resulting inquiry reports are transcribed here.

Arthur Horsley was the youngest son of Samuel and Lydia, born in 1897. His army records do not seem to have survived but the Commonwealth War Graves Commission records that he was buried at Bousies Communal Cemetery in France.

Nellie was Samuel and Lydia's fifth child. She married Arthur Monk in 1912. As she died less than a year later, it is possible that she died in childbirth.