John Richard Wright, known as Jack, was born in 1892 in Wesham, Lancashire. He was the first of four children of James Wright and his second wife Elizabeth Kelly who married on 4 June 1892 at St Michael, Kirkham. James was a stationary engine driver from Cromer, Norfolk, the son of a publican. Elizabeth was from Westby with Plumpton, the daughter of an Irish labourer.
A second son, Thomas, was born in Wesham in 1896 after which the Wright family moved to our area where a third son, James Edward, was born on 10 May 1899 and baptised at Christ Church, Thornton on 29 May. In the Census taken on 31 March 1901, the family of five were recorded at 6 Heys Street. James was employed as a store keeper at the salt works. A daughter was born on 24 May 1901 and named Rose Ellen.
The older children attended the Church Road Council School. By the time of the next Census on 2 April 1911, James Wright had died and his widow and children had moved to nearby 18 Ormerod Street. Jack and Tom had left school to work at United Alkali. Jack was a boiler maker's labourer. He had enlisted at Fleetwood on 2 March 1909 in the 5th Battalion of the King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment (Fleetwood Territorials). Between 1910 and 1913 he attended four summer training camps at Hornby, Kendal, Kirkham and Denbigh before being called to active service on 5 August 1914.
Jack was promoted to Lance Corporal on 1 January 1915 whilst still in England. He embarked for France at Southampton with the British Expeditionary Force on 14 February. He was quickly promoted to Corporal and then to acting Sergeant on 10 June. On 17 June he was appointed Machine Gun Sergeant. On 10 August Jack received a gunshot wound to the right forearm which fractured the bone. After treatment in the Casualty Clearing Station he was transferred to hospital at Wimeraux, Pas-de-Calais and thence back to England on 23 August 1915. He was treated in the military hospital at Bagthorpe, Nottingham (now Nottingham City Hospital) for 8 days and was allowed to recuperate in England until 18 November when he again embarked at Southampton, rejoining his unit in the field on 22 November. On 8 March 1916 Jack was attached to the 166th Company, Machine Gun Corps.
On 10 November 1916 the London Gazette announced that Jack had been awarded the Military Medal. In a letter to his mother published by the Fleetwood Gazette on 8 December 1916, Jack wrote: "I am pleased to tell you that I have been awarded the military medal for bravery in the field, and I sincerely hope I am spared to receive it. I am going to join the boys in a few days' time, but I hope to see you all again before long. I want to have another crack with Johnny before I do so."
It would appear that this letter was written whilst Jack was on leave in England as he married Elizabeth May Phillips in Manchester around this time. Elizabeth was born on 6 May 1894 in Bilston, Staffordshire, the youngest of thirteen children of Edwin Phillips, an iron puddler, and his wife Drucilla Hayward who had married at Trinity Church, Ettingshall, Staffordshire on 20 June 1870.
On 17 February 1917 Jack was formally transferred to the 166th Company. He suffered injuries to his head and shoulders on 14 June when he was crushed in a dugout collapse. After treatment at a field hospital, Jack was transferred to the general hospital in Boulogne. He rejoined his unit on 5 July but was killed in action on 20 September. Jack was aged about 25.
Sergeant John Richard Wright M.M., 73348, 166th Company, Machine Gun Corps (Infantry) is remembered on the Tyn Cot Memorial, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium and on the Thornton Church Road School Memorial. His widow emigrated to Canada after the war where she married William Frederick Stark, a veteran of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, on 18 January 1922 in Huntsville, Muskoka County, Ontario.
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