Private Bernard George Wright, 13th Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment, died on 21st October 1916. He was born in Berkswell on 29th May 1879, where his parents Walter Henry and Catherine (née Merry) had been schoolmaster and schoolmistress respectively from at least 1871 until c. 1880. He was baptised at All Saints, Coventry on 29th October 1879. All of his siblings – Arthur Ernest (born 1870), Rose Edith (born 1871), and Frederick Walter (born 6th October 1873) were born in Berkwsell.
By 1881, the family had moved to Podington, Bedfordshire, moving to Nettlebed, near Henley-in-Arden, Oxfordshire by 1891, where Walter and Catherine were teachers at the local elementary school. Between 1891 and 1901 Walter and Catherine retired from teaching, and Walter set up a grocer’s shop in Wokingham in partnership with his son, Frederick Walter.
Bernard became a draper’s apprentice and, in 1911, was living in Brighton, Sussex. He joined the Army in Horsham and served with the Royal Sussex Regiment until his death in action on 21st October 1916. He is buried in Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery. His name does not appear on the Berkswell war memorial, presumably because of the family having moved away from the area shortly after his birth.
If you have any more information, please let us know.
Tracey
Heritage & Local Studies Librarian
tel.: 0121 704 6977
email: heritage@solihull.gov.uk
Solihull Life 
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