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A.B R/365 Horace Wright
Hawke Battalion R.N.D
It is with Great pride and humility i bring you the following ,
set of images, of the contents of a parcel i received ,
they are in relation to a former Reservist,
A/B R/365 Hawke Battalion ,
Horace Wright age 19 who died ,
on the 3rd of february 1917 during Operations on the Ancre
Which took place from 11 January – 13 March 1917, between the British Fifth Army and the German 1st Army, on the Somme front during the First World War. After the Battle of the Ancre (13–18 November 1916), British attacks on the Somme front stopped for the winter.,
the fragile Original Envelope contains the letters,
(two of) including the front and reverse of one letter ,
the 3rd (smaller)image is of the original postmark on the envelope
the letters were sent to the grieving parents ,
people who know me know how much i am passionate about the Royal Naval Division and preserving their artefacts and ephemera as i am a former reservist,
i owe it to them to tell their story for them , this is the first time i have ever seen such personal documents of this type never mind held them,
Above is the postmark from the Admiralty envelope ,which, shows it was posted ,on the 17th of january 1917 at 7.45 pm ?
the letter on the left is dated the 23rd of november 1917,
the one below is dated the 6th of october 1917
the descrepency between the dates on the 2 letters could be explained by the time allowed in regulations between a soldier going missing and legally being able to report them Killed in action , the envelope could have contained another letter ?
and this envelope survived , out of the 3 ,
and the passage of time ?
Below are images of both sides of his service records , which contain, details of when he joined /where he went etc , it also shows his civillian occupation, before the war which shows he was an Upholsterer by trade, also of note is the typed notation,
"DISCHARGED "DD" ( Discharged dead )
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On the left is a very old image ,
of the chapel he went to
The images below are from the,commonwealth war graves commission s
index for the thiepval memorial (Horaces entry is ringed) and the memorial certificate in Horaces Name is next to it .
Below are images kindly sent to me by
Emily Toettcher & Peter Healy and well known local Historian ,Stuart king
from the Amersham Museum
49 The high street Amersham Thankyou for them, and the information provided
special thanks go to Stuart king for the ones of Horace and images of the cottages and other buildings .
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On the left we have a view of a Semi Detached property ,called peddles Cottage lived in by the Tillbury family,
in one cottage ,
and Green View lived in by the Wright,
Family in the other, it seams that this property, is across the road /common, from
pleasant view see image below as written
on the Envelope ,
But as "Pleasure view" on Horaces service
Documents ? it also seems that horaces parents may have moved to "pleasent view"
after Horaces death ?
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The image on the left is a modern day view of Pleasent view, which was originaly
2 semi detached houses, the centre of the image shows the original properties
with the fence between them,
the properties were
built between the late victorian
and early Edwardian eras ,
in the last 20 years,
both properties , have been added to.
This image on the left is,
from 1913 and shows the,
baptist church that Horace,
and his parents went to ,
the houses are just out out of shot, the church nowadays is
now a private house,
Holmer Green was a small village , in ww1 and had a,
population of roughly 600 ,
give or take , so his loss would have been keenly felt by most
living there , which shows really, the impact the war had,
on rural life and communitys
Below we have 2 images of Horace in the one on the left he is dressed in his,
cricket whites in the one on the right he is dressed in his R.N.D uniform
this dates that image to between the 18-10-1916 and january 1917,
and was taken at blandford camp which was at the time and was the R.N.Ds
advance Training Ground , before they were shipped overseas
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the Publication on the left,
the Heroes of Holmer Green arrived today ,
it tells the story ,
of Horace , his family and the other
village men who were called to the colours in ww1,
it tells you about the ones who died,
and the men who made it home to a different
country and village they left ,
published in 2017 and co written by
Stuart king and Christopher peers,
is well worth a read
During WW1the crested china manufacturers also
wanted to do their bit to raise morale the 3 pieces of
crested china below are examples of their work
the carlton china tommys hut has the Blandford crest which is very apt as horace trained there .
