J.Wright (believed to be Corporal James Wright of the 8th (Service) Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, born in Deeping Lincolnshire in 1886, the son of Edward and Ann Wright)

J. Wright has not been positively identified. No one of this name in the official casualty databases such as CWGC or Soldiers Died has been identified as having a local connection to Buckley.

Notes by Peter Kelsall

J. Wright is not listed on any memorial that I have seen, either churches or other town memorials. He (presumably) is one of only 11 names from the Hawkesbury Memorial who are not on either the Bistre or St Matthews church memorials, and one of only 6 names from the Hawkesbury Memorial not on any local church memorial. The other 5 include W. Terry from Burnley, I. J. Iball from Abergavenny, and Sydney Lyndsell from London. Two others have strong Buckley connections and are unexpected omissions from the church memorials, but in general I would say the omission suggests our man probably lived somewhere with a Buckley connection such as wife or grandparents, and that connection was remembered in the 1950s but not in the years in the immediate aftermath of the war.

Several requests for information have been issued but with no response. Through the efforts of Graham Caldwell J. Wright may have been identified.

Notes by Graham Caldwell

The most plausible identity for J. Wright is that he is 11859 Corporal James Wright of the 8th (Service) Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers who was born in Deeping Lincolnshire 5 April 1886, the son of Edward and Ann Wright (nee Booley). In 1911 James was working at Sealand, 6 miles from Buckley as a farm labourer, and he enlisted as a volunteer in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers at Shotton instead of returning to his home county of Lincolnshire.

Corporal James Wright died of his wounds after the Battle of Kut Al Imara, Mesopotamia on 2nd March 1917 and is buried in the Amara War Cemetery (Iraq) and is commemorated on the Deeping St Nicholas war memorial in Lincolnshire.

Evidence that this is the correct J. Wright is as follows

• No other J. Wright with a connection to Buckley has been found in CWGC, Soldiers Died, or records on Ancestry.
• Connection to nearby Sealand in 1911.
• Enlistment at Shotton in late 1914 or early 1915.