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Capt Arthur de Bells Adam (MC)
1885 - 1916


CPL David Wallace Crawford
1887 - 1916


Lce-Corpl John Joseph Nickle
1894 - 1916


Pte 17911 Morton Neill
1897 - 1916


Lieut Edward Stanley Ashcroft
1883 - 1918
Lieut Edward Stanley Ashcroft

Cpl 114191 Albert Henry Wright


  • Age: 29
  • From: Lambeth, Surrey
  • Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 17th Btn
  • K.I.A Sunday 9th February 1919
  • Commemorated at: Archangel Allied Cemetery
    Panel Ref: Sp Mem B137

Albert Henry Wright was born in Camberwell, London in 1889 and was baptised in the church of St John the Evangelist, Brixton on 30th Deptember that year, when his parents, Frederick Wright and his wife Elizabeth (nee Dabbs) were living at 267 Shakespeare Road. His father's occupation is given as joiner. Frederick Wright, born in Pimlico, and Elizabeth Matilda Dabbs, born in Chelsea, married in 1879. Albert was the fourth of their five children, and the only surviving son.

The 1891 Census shows Frederick, a joiner, and Elizabeth living at 20 Flaxman Road, Camberwell with their two children, Edith Agnes aged 7 years and Albert Henry aged 1 year. Two other children, Frederick Charles and Nellie Norah, had died in infancy. The family remained at this address for the rest of Albert's life, and his father held steady employment as a joiner.

In 1901, still at Flaxman Road, the family have a third child, a daughter aged 8 years. This daughter is variously named in documents of the time as Mabel Dorothy, Dorothy or Dorothy Mabel, who was born on 23rd September 1892 and baptised Mabel Dorothy on 23rd November 1892. Albert is 11 years old. Also declared is a visitor, Laban Rogers, a 36-year old  carpenter from Kent.

The family was still living at 20 Flaxman Road in 1911, his father is 55, still employed as a joiner, his  mother is 54. Their daughter Edith, aged 26 is a draper’s ledger clerk; Albert Henry, aged 21 is a printer’s bookkeeper; and Dorothy, aged 18, is a stock clerk in a woollen warehouse. His father provides the information, not recorded on previous censuses, that his disability is "hump", and his wife, Elizabeth, is deaf.

Elizabeth died not long afterwards, in November 1911, at the age of 54.

Although Albert’s service record has not survived, other documents show that he initially served as Private 3107 with the Northumberland Cyclists Battalion which was subsumed into the Northern Cyclist Battalion (TF). Cyclists were trained as mobile infantry and were used as signallers and scouts, among other functions.

Albert's medal card shows that he was awarded only the BWM and VM. At some time, presumably in late 1918, he was posted to the 17th  Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment .

He was killed in North Russia on 09th February 1919.Graham Maddocks describes how Albert, together with his fellow Pals; 114144 Private John Roberts; 114116 Private John Kenworthy; 18619 Private Cyril Maher; 29664 Private William McDonough; 50785 Corporal Charles Lewis Milton and  was killed. By early February 1919, the Bolshevik presence in the area of Seletskoe was growing steadily stronger and at 4.30am on 09th February 1919 they opened up a fierce and sudden artillery bombardment on both flanks of the 17th Battalion’s forward blockhouse positions and succeeded in cutting their communications with the rear. The Bolsheviks then attacked with infantry and although repulsed with considerable losses on the left flank, they eventually overran the right flank blockhouse position after a fierce fight and killed all its occupants except Private Roberts, whom they captured but later murdered.

A survivor of the Russian campaign, Private J. Grogan, 17th KLR, described to Maddocks how he went with others to to check on Church Post, the right hand blockhouse attacked, as HQ was unable to contact them by telephone.

“When we found them they were dead. They’d all been dragged out and murdered”.

Albert was buried in Seletscoe Burial Ground and is commemorated on a Special Memorial in Archangel Allied Cemetery.

During both world wars, Archangel was one of the ports through which the Allies assisted Russia with supplies and munitions. The cemetery was begun immediately after the occupation of the town in August 1918 by the Allied force sent to support the Soviet Russian Government against potential threat from German occupied Finland and other local sources. It was used by No.85 General Hospital, No.53 Stationary Hospital, No.82 Casualty Clearing Station, HM Hospital Ship 'Kalyan' and other Allied hospitals. 

ARCHANGEL ALLIED CEMETERY contains 224 burials and commemorations of the First World War, including special memorials to 140 officers and men with known burials in cemeteries elsewhere in northern Russia. Two of the burials are unidentified. The cemetery also contains 7 Second World War burials. The ARCHANGEL MEMORIAL, which consists of panels fixed into the east wall of the cemetery, commemorates 219 British officers and men who died during the north Russian campaign and whose graves are not known. His CWGC record gives his date of death as 10th February 1919, whilst the graves registration forms show two different dates of death, 07th and 09th February.His outstanding Army pay and a War Gratuity of £12-10s went to his father Frederick.The pension card in the name of his sister Dorothy, of Loughborough Park, Brixton, shows that she received a gratuity in lieu of a pension.His father is found on electoral rolls at 20 Flaxman Road until 1920.  It is not known when he died.Sadly, Albert has not been found on any local war memorials.He is remembered on his mother’s gravestone in West Norwood Cemetery -          In Ever Loving Memory      ALSO OF ALBERT HENRY     KILLED IN ACTION IN RUSSIA ON      FEB. 9TH 1919, AGED 29 

His younger sister, Dorothy, married in 1924 and died in Surbiton in 1989, aged 97.

We currently have no further information on Albert Henry Wright, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.

 

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