Name
Edmund Lancelot Wright
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
16/07/1916
32
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Captain
King's Shropshire Light Infantry
7th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
LA NEUVILLE BRITISH CEMETERY, CORBIE
I. C. 7.
France
Headstone Inscription
He has outsoared the shadow of our night
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial,
Stained Glass Window, Hitchin Boys Grammar School,
St Mary's Church Roll of Honour, Hitchin
Pre War
Son of Fredrick Ashfield Wright and Ann Wright, of of Tilehouse St. Hitchin; He had married Elizabeth Helen the only daughter of the late Rev. James Armitage Bonser, the Vicar of Shillington in the Autumn of 1914. He left a son who had been born on the 25th December 1915 and their home was on Moormead Hill, Hitchin.
He was educated at Worcester Cathedral Choir School, Hitchin Grammar School and Malvern College. He was articled to Hyde Tandy and Mahon, Solicitors of Ely Place in London. He was admitted a Solicitor in 1907 and practised in Hitchin with his father. He was well known as a cricketer and Captain of the Hitchin Cricket Club.
Wartime Service
At the outbreak of war he joined the Inns of Court Officers Training Corps ‘K’ Company. ‘H’ Squadron with the Regimental Number 2097 on the 16th November 1914. He attained the rank of Corporal in the Corps and was commissioned into the Shropshire Light Infantry on the 18th June 1915 as a Second Lieutenant. He was posted to the 7th (Service) Battalion which was in the 8th Brigade of the 3rd Division and he arrived in France on the 27th September 1915 with the rest of the Division.
On the 14th July 1916 the Division with two others was instructed to attack in the area of Bazentin-le-Grand to Longueval in the Somme Sector at 3.25am., after a short but intense bombardment in weather that was fine but overcast. By 9.00am they had gained their objectives in fierce fighting and then struck out again. The day's battle was a brilliant success but it is almost certain that Edmund was one of the thousands of casualties.
He is buried in Plot 1, Row C, Grave 7 in the La Neuville British Cemetery, Corbie in France. At the time of Edmund's death there was a Casualty Clearing Station for officers in the vicinity.
Additional Information
There is a private inscription on his headstone reading "He has outsoared the shadow of our night".
Acknowledgments
David C Baines, Jonty Wild
