Regiment: Shropshire Light Inf.
Died: 16 July 1916 aged 33 in France. Died of wounds at the Somme.
Battle: Battle of the Somme. Cemetery: La Neuville Brit Corbie I C 7
Son of Fredrick Ashfield Wright and Ann Wright, Hitchin. b. 1883.
Ill—Middle V. School Prefect. XI Cricket; House XI Football.
Solicitor 1907.
Husband of Elizabeth Helen Wright, of Moor Mead Hill, Hitchin, Herts.
Great War, O.T.C. 1914; Captain 7th Bn. King's Shropshire Light Infantry.
'He was articled to a firm of solicitors in London, and afterwards practised at Hitchin with his father. At the outbreak of war he joined the Inns of Court Officers' Training Corps, and soon received his commission. From a Hitchin local paper we take the following account: "Captain Wright was widely known as a cricketer and as the captain of the Hitchin Cricket Club. Before the war he had a regular place in the County Eleven, and invariably did well. He was not only a good bat and change bowler, but smart in the field; he set his men an excellent example of keenness. This fine example he set also in the more arduous game of war and in the larger field of battle. He was a true type of the new British officer—a courageous leader of the New Army." (Malvernian, Jul 1916).
Unit War Diary extract:
'Carnoy. 14th July 1916. 3.30am. Battalion advanced towards German trenches and were held up by barbed wire. Remainder leaped into shell holes & consolidated along road 200 yards from German trench. At 12pm Battalion again charged & captured both 1st & 2nd trenches & also 250 prisoners. When all battalion were collected & consolidating German 2nd trench we found 5 officers were untouched, the remainder were wounded or killed, with heavy losses in the ranks - 147 killed, 278 wounded, 16 missing.
Captain Wright was one of the many officers who died of wounds. '
Unit War Diary:WO 95/1421/4