WRIGHT, Edwin Stanley


2nd Lieutenant, Edwin Stanley WRIGHT
Aged 30


7th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment
formerly 3314, Private, 28th Battalion London Regiment (Artists Rifles)
Killed in Action on Monday 3rd July 1916


Edwin Stanley Wright was born in Hadleigh (Cosford Q2-1886 4A:688), son of Edwin and Annie WRIGHT (née HART).

1891 census...Aged 5, he was at Church Street, Hadleigh with his father Edwin WRIGHT [39] chemist born Marylebone;his mother Annie [39]; brothers Charles E [3] and Thornton H [2]; aunt Elizabeth HART [45]. All except his father were born in Hadleigh.

1901 census...Aged 15, he was at Well Lane, Clare with his parents (father chemist/wine merchant), and aunt Elizabeth HART. His brother, Thornton Hugh, had died in Hadleigh in 1893 aged 4.

1911 census...Aged 25, a clerk, he was at 30 Rosemont Road, Acton, Middlesex with his aunt Catherine BACON (Hadleigh born). His parent were still at Well Lane, Clare. They later moved to Chilton Cottage, Clare and then to 18 Messaline Avenue, Acton.


He enlisted in the 24th Battalion, London Regiment (Artists Rifles) and was posted to France/Flanders on 9th May 1915, then commissioned on 23rd October 1915 in Suffolk Regiment.
Battalion war diary :-
At 3.15 am the battalion made a frontal attack on OVILLERS on a frontage of 200 yards. The disposition of the battalion was as follows:-"D" Coy on the right, "C" Coy on the left, supported by "B" Coy on the right and "A" Coy on the left. On the right of the battalion was the 5th Royal Berks and on the left the 37th Brigade, the 36th Brigade being in reserve. Two companies of the Essex Regt were in support to each battalion, the Norfolks being in reserve.
Zero was at 3:15, ten minutes before zero the leading waves advanced under cover of the bombardment and at the hour of zero the battalion assaulted in eight successive waves. The first 4 waves ("D" and "C" Coys) penetrated to the enemy's third line and portions of them into the village itself, but owing to the darkness touch was lost with succeeding waves and with the 5th Royal Berks on the right, so that the leading waves were not supported closely enough, thus allowing the Germans to get in between the waves and cut off the leading ones at the 3rd line of resistance, it was at this 3rd German line that the chief casualties occurred and the assault was brought to a standstill.The two companies of the Essex Regt moving up in support were too far behind and were practically annihilated by machine gun fire during their advance across the open. The casualties in the battalion were 21 Officers and 458 OR killed, wounded and missing, though some of these missing eventually rejoined the battalion during the following night.


CWGC records give 158 of the battalion killed that day 4 are on the Mash Valley memorial and 112 are named on the Thiepval Memorial to the missing of the Somme

Mash Valley runs parallel to and north of the Albert-Bapaume road between La Boiselle and Ovillers



photo: Rodney Gibson



Edwin Wright is commemorated on the Special Memorial 28 in Ovillers Military Cemetery
which names the 35 men buried in Mash Valley Cemetery whose grave were destroyed in later fighting.

click here to go to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website for full cemetery/memorial details


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