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General => Armed Forces => World War One => Topic started by: gralorn on Sunday 06 May 18 17:59 BST (UK)
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Trying to establish who were his parents and where they were from. He sadly died in action on 30th Sept 1918.
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If it's of any help, his widow was Gertrude Phillippa Wright
JJ
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There is a marriage of a Harry W Wright to a Gertrude P Ainsworth
q3 1914 Kings Norton
Vol 6d Page 223
JJ
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Briliant, I now think that they had a child also so will have to find that out. Thank you
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The Register of Soldiers' Effects shows him leaving his effects to his widow Gertrude P which links with JJen. His entry in the Soldiers who died in the Great War has his birth place as Kensal Rise Middlesex
Most likely subsequent birth is George H Wright Q4 1915 Weymouth (where he joined up according to SDGW).
MaxD
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Thank you that certainly puts some meat on the bone as they say. Will just need to look up where he was KIA and what happened to his widow and son. Thank you all again.
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The war diary (National Archives http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7353760 also on Ancestry) has a comprehensive description of the action of 30 Sep 1918 which took place starting in square N 3 in the linked map/image
http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=13&lat=49.8988&lon=3.2937&layers=101465269&right=BingHyb
and then to the north on the map that joins that one
http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=14&lat=49.9390&lon=3.3047&layers=101465254&right=BingHyb
Ecume trench can be seen on the first map going north and appearing on the second at H 33.
MaxD
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I will certainly have a look at those
Thanks again
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Gertrude remarried to Ernest Sims in 1925 B'ham & lived in Erdington B'ham.
Died 1958 Bromsgrove Worcs.
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Many thanks for that, only have to find out what became of Harry and Gertrudes son George H Wright now. He as it says above was born in 1915. I have a feeling, but no proof that he marries a woman called Joan, again in the B'ham area.
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Yes George Wright did marry Joan E Nash in 1939 and then presumably went to war, what he did and in what branch of the services I have no knowledge. What I do know is that in 1946 they were able to have their first child Mary. We know that his uncle Harry died with the 1st Battalion of the Dorsets, and that he had another uncle Thomas George Croftwright who served with the Wiltshire Regiment. That apart from a census of 1911 tells me that he was in Le Marchant Barracks, Devizes is all that I know about him.Again any information would be most appreciated as always. I am always amazed at how much you people can produce with so little!
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Who was in Le Marchant Barracks in 1911?
MaxD
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I think it's Thomas Croftwright Max although I can't find any military record for him nor can I find him on the 1911 census on Ancestry,FindMyPast or IGI.
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Me too hence the query. Obviously not George H as he was not yet born.
MaxD
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It was Thomas George Croftwright, but as the father had absconded the family dropped the name Croftwright and simply became Wright. So he may have enlisted into the Wiltshire Regt as Thomas George Wright.
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Just cross checking 1911 - Thomas Wright born Chelsea 1888?? (Links with FreeBMD entry of Croftwright)
MaxD
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Thomas George Joshua Croftwright birth Dec.1888 Chelsea (sub district Kensal Rise) - mmn Rivers.
So, does this mean Harry Wright is the Henry William Mager Croftwright birth Jun.1890 Chelsea - mmn Rivers - as service record states born Kensal Rise - and he is listed as Harry in 1891 Census?
Annette
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I have Thomas George Croftwright, no Joshua, born Chelsea London 1888. Parents living at 52 Sixth Avenue, Chelsea. His mother Mary Jane Croftwright nee Rivers !! That is the best that I can do.
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Isabella Mary Crowcroft born 1885 is living with grandparents Rivers in Kensal Town 1891. Dies 1881.
No identifiable sign of Thomas in military records after 1911.
MaxD
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leave it there Max, just not winning with this one, thanks for help though. Appreciated.
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Not winning, gralorn?
I definitely think this Croftwright family are yours - don't know about the father absconding which you mentioned earlier but in 1901 wife Mary is now Wright shown as a widow and living in Bedwelty, Monmouthshire where she is a 'Teacher in Board School' and with her are daughter Rhoda and her sister in law Annie Wright who is also 'Teacher in Board School'.
As Croftwright Thomas and Mary Jane, nee Rivers had the following children:
Isabella Mary - born June quarter 1885 Chelsea
Rhoda - born Dec.1886 Chelsea
Thomas George J. (new GRO index shows J is for Joshua) - born Dec.1888 Chelsea
Henry William M. (new GRO index shows M is for Mager) - born June qtr.1890 Chelsea
George Edward - born Sept.1895 Chelsea
Margaret - born June qtr.1898 Chelsea
Can't find eldest daughter Isabella, nor youngest Margaret, in 1901 BUT sons Thomas, Henry (Harry in 1891) and George appear to be at some kind of school 'Sisters of Charity' in Sculcoates, Yorkshire.
Cannot give details re. 1911 census but Mary is now in Portisham, Dorset. I wonder whether this may be why Harry joined a Dorset regiment.
The Thomas Wright you mention as being in Wiltshire regiment in Devizes in 1911 is not the former Thomas George Croftwright. He was a plain Thomas Wright, coincidentally son of a Thomas and Mary, but found he enlisted 13/6/1905 when he was then living in Swindon, as indeed were his family (they'd moved there in 1890's). His father and brothers are named, and address was 6 Byron Road, Swindon.
So, as the Croftwright's have become plain Wright by 1901 locating the 3 sons in 1911 will no doubt be problematic with such a common surname.
I note on 1881 census the name Croftwright is shown as Croft-Wright.
So whether Thomas senior absconded or did in fact die, clearly wife Mary had to support her family as best she could and became a teacher in Wales (1901 when 3 boys at school in Yorkshire) and Dorset (1911).
Annette
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Thanks Annette for all that, the most interesting part being that it was just a ' plain' Thomas Wright with same named parents from Swindon that was in the Wiltshire Regt. So I must still find out what my uncle Thomas did in the war. I know that he got married at Sherborne in Dorset and then they moved North. Margaret was also in a Charity orphanage at Hereford run by nuns not too far from her mother in Monmouthshire near Tredgar, so the nuns thought that this was where she had been born and put it as place of birth on the census. Margaret is my grandmother. Isabella is also in a charity school. Thank you though for all that you found out, appreciated.
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Annette has it exactly right from the military records. The Thomas Wright born Chelsea and who lived in Swindon was indeed another family. He first enlisted in the 2nd Battalion Wiltshire Regiment in 1904 for 4 months and then discharged with service no longer required. He rejoined but this time in the 3rd Battalion, the militia (part time), in 1905, transferring to the full time regiment in 1906. It may well be him in Devizes in 1911 but as his number is not given, we don't know.
Where he served in the war is, as said, an unknown.
MaxD
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Gralorn - I don't know if you are aware but Army service records were destroyed by enemy action in 1940 and the records that are available now online are just the 40% that survived. That's a huge loss. Both of my own grandfathers served in WW1 and sadly their records must have been in the 60% destroyed by fire.
Annette