(Henry) Arthur WRIGHT (1882–1918)
(Henry) Arthur Wright (known as Arthur or “Dusty”) was born in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire in 1882, the son of Benjamin Wright (born in Bledlow near Aylesbury in 1852/3, registered first quarter of 1853) and Emily Louisa Webster (born in Leighton Buzzard in 1858, registered second quarter).
His parents were married in Leighton Buzzard in the third quarter of 1876 and had eight children:
- Edith Emily Wright (born in Leighton Buzzard in 1877, registered third quarter)
- Ellen Wright (born in Leighton Buzzard in 1879, registered third quarter)
- William Wright (born in Leighton Buzzard in 1880, registered last quarter)
- Henry Arthur Wright, known as Arthur (born in Leighton Buzzard in 1882, registered second quarter)
- Emily Louisa Wright (born in Leighton Buzzard in February 1884 and baptised when she was seven, at the same time as her younger brother Harry, on 30 August 1891)
- George Wright (born in Leighton Buzzard in 1886, registered third quarter)
- Harry Thomas Wright (born in Headington Quarry in 1889/90, registered first quarter of 1890 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 30 August 1891)
- Daisy Wright (born in Headington Quarry in 1892, registered fourth quarter and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 25 December 1892).
At the time of the 1881 census Arthur’s parents were living in Heath Road, Leighton Buzzard with their first three children: his father was a general dealer and his mother was a straw-plait maker. They were still there in 1886, but had moved to Headington Quarry by 1890.
The 1891 census shows the family living in Beaumont Terrace. Arthur’s father is described as a “Dealer (shop)”, neither an employer nor employed. There were now seven children: Edith (12), Ellen (10), William (9), Arthur (8), and Emily (6), who were all at school; and George (4) and Henry (1).
Arthur’s father died in 1893 at the age of 39 and was buried at Holy Trinity churchyard on 21 November.
At the time of the 1901 census Arthur (18) was away in Towersey, living with and working for the general dealer William Wright (who may have been a relation, although he was born in Tring). This must have only have been a short-term arrangement, as Arthur evidently came back to Quarry. Meanwhile his widowed mother was living in The Pits and working as a charwoman, with five children still at home: William (20), who was a brickmaker; Emily (16), who was a charwoman; George (14); and Harry (11) and Daisy (8), who were still at school. The two eldest girls, Edith and Ellen, had already married and left home.
Arthur Wright is remembered by P. Phillips in Raphael Samuel, Village Life and Labour (page 242) as “just a rough and ready bloke … straight as a die … a little bit of a gypsy”, who “had a way of getting about without work”. When the First World War broke out, Wright was in Oxford jail for “either poaching or fighting”. Phillips recalls:
There was two inside, in jail, and when the war broke out they volunteered to go straight over. They let ’em out to go. They never come back. Old Dusty Wright, as we called him, and Ferret Taylor. Never come back. And they was blokes like – that when they was out there fightin’ – if they see a German, they’d be after ’im – wouldn’t wait to be told – they was that type of feller, and they both went west.
At the time of the 1911 census Arthur Wright (28), described as a former bricklayer’s labourer and still single, was certainly an inmate of Oxford Prison in New Road, and as his war record states that he was resident in Oxford rather than in Headington when he joined up, he was either still incarcerated or newly admitted. His widowed mother was then working as a charwoman at the Workhouse and living at Beaumont Road (then called Post Office Road) with two of her other sons: George (23), a bricklayer, and Charles (20), a brickmaker’s carter.
In the First World War Wright first served as a Horsekeeper in the Royal Army Veterinary Corps
(Service No. S.E./2431), and then as a Gunner in the “C” Battery, 50th Brigade of the Royal Horse Artillery and Royal Field Artillery (Service No. 179066). He died in France at the age of 36 on 1 November 1918.
He is buried at the Terlincthun British Cemetery, Wimille (VI. F. 17), and is listed on the stone plaque in the porch of Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry.
Postscript
Arthur’s mother
- Mrs Emily Louisa Wright died at 22 Beaumont Road at the age of 74 and was buried at Holy Trinity churchyard on 3 December 1932 with her grandson Thomas Wilkins. The grave has an inscription to them both, and to Emily’s daughter Edith Wilkins.
Arthur’s siblings
- Edith Emily Wright (born 1877) married William Wilkins in the Headington registration district in the second quarter of 1896. Their son Thomas Arthur Wilkins (born 1901) was accidentally killed at the age of 23 and buried in Holy Trinity churchyard on 10 September 1924). Three more children were baptised at Holy Trinity Church: Nellie Wilkins (baptised on 29 January 1905), Joseph John Wilkins, born on 19 March and baptised on 19 May 1907, and Victor George Wilkins, born on 3 February 1911 and baptised on 7 April 1912). Arthur’s sister Emily died at the age of 74 at 9 Pitts Road on 16 April 1952 and was buried in the same grave as her mother and son.
- Ellen Wright (born 1879) married Charles Massey at Holy Trinity Church on 9 June 1900. They had six children baptised at Holy Trinity Church: Nellie Mahala Massey (bapt. on 24 February 1901), Arthur Charles Massey (bapt. on 30 November 1902, Emily Sarah Massey (bapt. on 26 March 1905), Laura May Massey (born on 19 March and bapt. on 19 May 1907), George William Massey (bapt. on 27 February 1910), and Evelyn Daisy Massey (born on 30 January and bapt. on 31 March 1918.
- William Wright (born 1880) married Ada Massey at Holy Trinity Church on 25 April 1903. They had twelve children baptised at Holy Trinity Church: William Charles Wright (bapt. 22 May 1904); Elizabeth Emily Wright (born 9 May, bapt. 25 June 1905); Doris Lily Wright (born 26 December 1906, bapt. 31 March 1907); Florence Nellie Wright (bapt. 27 February 1910); Thomas George Wright (born 11 December 1911, bapt. 25 February 1912); Benjamin John Wright (born 4 August, bapt. 28 September 1913); Charles Arthur Wright (born 2 February, bapt. 13 March 1915); George and Henry Arthur Wright (twins, born 30 December 1919, bapt. 4 April 1920); Edith Marjorie Wright (born 22 March, bapt. 28 August 1921); Joan Wright (born 4 October, bapt. 7 December 1924); and Patricia Mary Wright (born 18 May, bapt. 25 September 1927).
- Emily Louisa Wright (born 1884) married James William Webb at Holy Trinity Church on 23 September 1905. They had five children baptised at Holy Trinity Church: James William Webb (born on 27 March and baptised on 19 May 1907); Arthur George Webb (born on 27 December 1908 and baptised on 28 February 1909); Victor Stanley Webb (born on 4 January and baptised on 26 March 1911); Daisy Webb (born on 13 April and baptised on 29 June 1913); and Colin Webb (born on 10 January and baptised on 31 March 1918.
- Harry Thomas Wright (born 1889/90) was living at 22 Beaumont Road when he married Elsie May Lilian Jones at Holy Trinity Church on 17 January 1929. They had four children, all registered in the Headington district: David H. V. Wright (1927), Lilian J. P. Wright (1928), Eric R. Wright (1930), and Barbara J. Jones (1931).
- Daisy Wright (born 1892) was living in Beaumont Road and working as a nurse when she married Walter Titchen Gunner on 6 June 1925.