Lieutenant
Wright, William Richard
Unit
18th Canadian Infantry Battalion (Western Ontario)
Branch
Infantry
Service Component
Canadian Expeditionary Force
Service Number
490808
birth
1898/04/08
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
death
1917/05/13
France
grave
Écoivres Military Cemetery, France
Gender
Male
William Richard Wright was born in Ottawa, Ontario, on 8 April 1898. He was the youngest of Henry and Marion Wright’s seven children. Henry Wright, who was a doctor, died six months after William was born, on 29 October 1898.
In February 1917, William Wright was commissioned as a lieutenant in the 4th Reserve Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force at Crowborough Camp, Sussex, England. It is unclear how he travelled to England. He was later transferred to the 18th Canadian Infantry Battalion (Western Ontario).
Wright was killed by shelling on the night of 12–13 May 1917 near Fresnoy, France, while leading a wire-carrying party back to the battalion’s billets in reserve trenches after delivering wire to the front lines.
William Richard Wright is buried in Écoivres Military Cemetery, in France.
