Name
Edmund Lancelot Wright
13 May 1883
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, Memorial Solicitors And Articled Clerks - WW1, Holborn Greater London, Memorial Building Christ Church Cathedral, (poss), Memorial Street St Aldates Memorial, Oxford (poss)
Pre War
Edmund was born on 13 May 1883 in Hitchin and christened on 11 Jun 1883 in St Mary’s Church, Hitchin. His parents were Frederick Ashfield and Ann Wright (née Lucas) who married in Kensington, London, in 1876.
In 1891 the family were living at 84 Tilehouse Street, Hitchin. Present were both parents: Frederick (44) and Ann (38), Frederick a solicitor and employer. Their children were: Madeline Edwards (13), Anne O (poss A and 17), May V (11), Edmund Lancelot (7), Frederic N (6), Alan Henry Septimus (4), Helen Beryl (1). Also present were cousins Nora Ashfield (18), Constant M Ashfield (13) and domestic servants Harriett Hare (22), Cecile Marier (70), Pauline Boyland (70).
He was educated at Worcester Cathedral Choir School, Hitchin Grammar School and Malvern College.
In 1901 Edmund was absent from the family home and living at 5 The Collage, Great Malvern, Herefordshire, where he was being educated and set to also become a solicitor. He took his exams on 3 July 1901 when he was 18 while living at the Collage.
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.
By 1911 the family were living at the same at 84 Tilehouse Street, Hitchin. Present were both parents, Frederick still a solicitor and employer. The household included children: Madeleine, Ann Irene Borough (32), Edmund, now 27 and also listed as a solicitor, Helen. The rest of the household was visitors Mary Dorothea Walls (51) and Frances Elizabeth Walls (13). And then domestic servants Edith Dickenson (25), Nellie Hailey (24), Agnes Terrier (14). The census recorded they had been married for 34 years with 8 children, of whom 1 had died.
In 1912 Edmund was recorded as a solicitor at 84 Tilehouse Street, Hitchin.
He was well known as a cricketer and Captain of the Hitchin Cricket Club.
Edmund’s engagement to Elizabeth Helen Bonser, the daughter of the Rev, James Armitage Bonser, MA and Mrs Bonser of the Shillington Vicarage, Shillington, Beds., around February 1914 and they married in October of that year in St Albans.
They had a son, Lancelot Armitage Wright, born on 25 December 1915, after Edmund had begun his service.
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. Later he was Gazetted as Captain.
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. There is a private inscription on his headstone reading "He has outsoared the shadow of our night".
Additional Information
In his Soldiers’ Effects entry show that he was recorded as Captain (then crossed out) and Second Lieutenant added.
The Army Compassionate List records a claim made on behalf of his son, Lancelot Armitage Wright for which a gratuity of £83.68 was paid to his mother, plus a yearly amount of £24. Payment of this to cease on 25 December 1933. It commenced with a pro-rata payment of £16 19s 2d paid to his mother in February 1918.
His widow, Mrs E L Wright made a claim for his medals on 8 March 1932, while living at Moor Mead Hill, Hitching(sic), Herts.
Probate was obtained by his widow on 26 March 1917, with the value of his effects £1709 19s 11d.
Edmund is also commemorated on the family grave in Hitchin Cemetery the inscription reads:
EDMUND LANCELOT
OLDEST SON OF FRED’K ASHFIELD & ANN WRIGHT
BORN MAY 13TH 1883 DIED OF WOUNDS IN FRANCE ON JULY 16TH 1916
Acknowledgments
David C Baines, Jonty Wild
