First World War Memorial, St Margaret’s Church, Oxford

Ronald Ernest BRIGHT (1899–1918)

Ronald Ernest Bright was born in Oxford in 1899, the son of Allen Albert Bright (born in Rickling Green, Essex in 1851, birth registered Saffron Walden third quarter) and Mary Alabaster Warner (born in Oxford in 1858/9, birth registered there first quarter of 1859). His parents were married in the Oxford Registration District in the third quarter of 1883 and had the following nine children (of whom only six were still living in 1911):

• Robert James Bright (born in Oxford, registered first quarter of 1884)
• Beatrice Laura Bright (born in Oxford in 1885/6, registered in first quarter of 1886)
• Albert John Bright (born in Oxford on 8 December 1887, baptised at SS Philip & James Church on 15 April 1888)
• Arthur Bright (born in Oxford on 15 November 1889, baptised at SS Philip & James Church on 29 December 1889, died aged one month, funeral there 7 January 1890)
• Gladys Daisy Bright (born in Oxford on 15 May 1891, baptised at SS Philip & James Church on 19 July 1891)
• Reginald Harry Bright (born in Oxford on 19 December 1893, baptised at SS Philip & James Church on 25 March 1894)
• Winifred May Bright (born in Oxford on 18 March 1897 baptised at St Margaret’s Church on 6 June 1897)
• Ronald Ernest Bright (born in Oxford on 16 April 1899 and baptised St Margaret’s Church on 25 June 1899)
• Victoria Doris Bright (born in Oxford on 18 January 1901 and baptised at St Margaret’s Church on 28 April 1901; died aged three, funeral at SS Philip & James Church on 16 April 1904).

Back in 1881 Ronald’s father (then a single man of 29) was a grocer’s assistant living over the original Grimbly Hughes shop in Cornmarket. Soon after his marriage, between 1884 and 1888, he moved to 73 Kingston Road (then in SS Philip & James parish, but in St Margaret’s parish from 1896). The 1891 shows him there with his wife, his wife’s mother, and his first three children; he was now a commercial traveller in the grocery business.

Ronald first appears in the 1901 census as a child of two, and then in the 1911 census as a schoolboy of 11. He attended the City of Oxford High School for Boys in George Street.

In the First World War Ronald Ernest Bright served as a Lieutenant in the 74th Squadron of the Royal Air Force. He died at the age of 19 on 8 May 1918, and has no known grave.

 

Bright is remembered on a plaque in the Old Boys’ High School, George Street (left); on the Arras Flying Services Memorial; and on the war memorial outside St Margaret’s Church in north Oxford.