Photo: James Pasby
48252 Private
J.W.S. Wright
N. Staffordshire Regt.
31st July 1921
Jacky Cooper has provided the following:
John William Stanley Wright was the eldest child of James Wright, an iron moulder, and Grace Jane Pluse (sometimes Plews) who were married early in 1896 in the Sunderland area. The young couple began their married life in Washington, where John was born towards the end of 1896. They moved to Swalwell, where a second son, Anthony, was born in 1898. When the 1901 census return was made the family was living in Church Square.
In 1911 the family was still living in Swalwell, at Church View. Fourteen year old John had left school and was working as a screener in the coal mine, and by then had two younger brothers, Norman and James.
John’s brother Anthony enlisted in December 1915, a week after his eighteenth birthday. John’s service records have not survived, and it is not known whether John was already serving at that point. He served in 4th Battalion, North Staffordshire (Prince of Wales's) Regiment with the service number 48252. This was a reserve battalion, which was in Marske in October 1916 and moved to Saltburn in March 1917. Perhaps it was around this time, when the battalion was serving locally that John enlisted.
The battalion sailed on SS Archangel to Le Havre from Southampton on the night of 10/11 October 1917. On 15 November 1917 the battalion was transferred to 106th Brigade in 35th Division near Ypres and was engaged in action on the Western Front. In 1918 the battalion fought in the 1st Battle of Bapaume, the battles of Ypres and Courtrai, and the action of Tieghem. At the end of the war the men were in Belgium, near Audenhove.
It looks likely that John wasn’t discharged until after the end of the war - he wasn’t issued with a Silver War Badge - but he must have had physical limitations as a result of his service because when he died on 31 July 1921, aged 25, he was given a Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone, in recognition that his death was caused by his service for his country. John was eligible for the British War Medal and the Victory Medal, as was his brother Anthony who served in the Durham Light Infantry and the West Riding Regiment.
In 1939 John’s widowed mother, Grace, was still living at Church View with her three surviving sons. She died in 1944.
