Samuel James WRIGHT

WRIGHT, Samuel James

Service Numbers: 1413A, 1413
Enlisted: 5 December 1914
Last Rank: Private
Last Unit: 15th Infantry Battalion
Born: Maitland, New South Wales, Australia, 1869
Home Town: Howard, Fraser Coast, Queensland
Schooling: Maryborough State School, Queensland, Australia
Occupation: Labourer
Died: Killed in Action, Gallipoli, 8 August 1915
Cemetery: No known grave - "Known Unto God"
Lone Pine Memorial to the Missing
Memorials: Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Howard War Memorial, Lone Pine Memorial to the Missing, Shire of Howard Roll of Honour
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World War 1 Service

5 Dec 1914: Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 1413A, 15th Infantry Battalion
13 Feb 1915: Involvement Private, 1413A, 15th Infantry Battalion, ANZAC / Gallipoli, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '11' embarkation_place: Brisbane embarkation_ship: HMAT Seang Bee embarkation_ship_number: A48 public_note: ''
13 Feb 1915: Embarked Private, 1413A, 15th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Seang Bee, Brisbane
8 Aug 1915: Involvement Private, 1413, 15th Infantry Battalion, ANZAC / Gallipoli, --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 1413 awm_unit: 15th Australian Infantry Battalion awm_rank: Private awm_died_date: 1915-08-08

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Biography contributed by Stephen Brooks

Samuel was 46 years of age when he enlisted. He had married Margarette Black on 6 March 1894 in Queensland. They had two children during their marriage. He was 6 feet tall and almost 14 stone, a large man for the time. He stated he was 40 years of age. He was reported missing on 8 August 1915. His death was not confirmed until April 1916.

Although he was married, he gave his next of kin as his mother and the parents received his medals, and pensions each. His wife and child are not mentioned in his service file.

Samuel’s younger brother 205 Pte. Douglas Walter Wright 26th Battalion AIF, was later killed in action at Pozieres on 29 July 1916, aged 41.

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Biography contributed by Ian Lang

 
#1413 Samuel James WRIGHT  15th Infantry Battalion
 
Sam Wright was born at East Maitland NSW to parents Sarah and Daniel Wright. While he was still young, his family moved to Maryborough Qld where Sam attended school. It would seem that after leaving school around the age of 13, Sam worked in a number of labouring jobs and he may even have been a miner at Howard for a time.
 
Sam travelled to Brisbane by train and presented himself for enlistment at Enoggera on 5th December 1914. He stated his age as 40 years. Other sources would indicate that he was in fact 46 years old. It is possible that he did not know his exact age but it is more likely that he was untruthful about his age in order to secure acceptance into the AIF. Recruiting officers took at face value, the facts given by potential recruits. Very few people at the time actually had birth certificates and it was easy to state an age either higher or lower; particularly in Sam’s case as at age 46, he was too old as the cut off for the AIF was 45.
 
Sam gave his occupation as bushman and stated he had served in the Wide Bay Infantry Regiment of the citizens forces for eight years from the age of 16. He stated his address as P.O. Howard. As mentioned elsewhere on this website, he named his mother as his next of kin rather than his wife from whom it is likely he was estranged.
 
Sam was drafted into the 2nd reinforcements for the 15th Battalion which had already departed Brisbane and was in camp at Broadmeadows near Melbourne. There is a second set of attestation papers in Sam’s file dated 4th January 1915, some 30 days after he originally enlisted. This set of papers shows that Sam was taken on as unallocated Light Horse. It is not clear what this signifies, except the fact that a telegram in Sam’s file from his former commanding officer in the Wide Bay Infantry, Colonel Rankin, seems to hint that Sam was attempting to be allocated to the Light Horse rather than the Infantry. The Light Horse file remained open, even after Sam embarked on the “Seeang Bee” in Brisbane as part of the 2nd reinforcements of the 15th Battalion. The light horse base at Enoggera had no idea of Sam’s whereabouts and marked his file “deserter” in August 1915, by which time Sam was already missing.
 
When Sam and the rest of the reinforcements arrived in Egypt, they were taken on strength by the battalion in camp at Heliopolis, a suburb of Cairo. The 15th Battalion was part of the 4th Brigade AIF. The battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel James “Bull” Cannan was a well-known citizen soldier from a prominent family in Brisbane. The brigade commander was also a well-known citizen soldier; Colonel John Monash, an engineer and lawyer from Melbourne. The 4th Brigade, along with several New Zealand infantry units formed the Australian and New Zealand Division in Egypt. The brigade entered into a rigorous training schedule during March 1915 before embarking on 11th April and sailed to Mudros Harbour on the island of Lemnos where the troops practised boat and landing drills in preparation for the landings at Gaba Tepe on the morning of 25th April.
 
 
Two companies of the 15th Battalion plus battalion headquarters sailed out of Mudros aboard the “Australind” on the evening of the 24th April. The 4th brigade was being kept in reserve as the Australian landings went ahead. The 15th battalion war diary records that the men on board the “Australind” were able to observe the naval bombardment at Cape Helles as the British went ashore. The 4th Brigade finally went ashore at Gallipoli late in the afternoon of the 25th April and immediately moved from the beach up a gully (Monash Gully) to a precarious position on the heights which eventually bore the name of an officer of the 15th; Quinn’s Post. The 15th remained on Gallipoli holding the line at Quinn’s for the next month. During May, the German commander of the Turkish forces ordered a series of charges by the Turkish infantry down the slopes towards the Australian lines with the objective of driving the invaders into the sea. The offensives were repelled and the number of Turkish and Australian dead created such a health problem for both sides that a truce was arranged for the 25th May so that each side could collect and bury their dead.
 
Birdwood, the British Commander at Anzac, was under some pressure from his superiors to secure a breakthrough to the heights above the Anzac beach-head. The ultimate goal was the commanding hill named Chunuk Bair and in early August, a series of coordinated attacks was planned to drive the Turks from the high ground.  The first of these offensives (a diversion really) was the attack on Lone Pine (where seven of the nine Victoria Crosses awarded to the AIF on Gallipoli were won) and the ill-fated charge by the Light Horse at the Nek; followed by a second landing of British troops at Suvla Bay. The main offensive was planned for the northern sector of the Anzac beachhead which entailed an advance at night along the beach before turning inland to scale a series of ridges towards the heights of Hill 971 also known as Sari Bair. The 4th Brigade would be part of this action on 8th August.
 
As was often the case at Anzac, the planning did not live up to expectations. None of the officers leading the 4th Brigade advance had actually reconnoitred the area and the orders issued bore no appreciation of the terrain. The 4th Brigade soon found themselves lost in the dark in a bewildering tangle of gullies; primarily due to a reliance on Greek guides, who then had to provide advice via interpreters, rather than the maps which had been issued. The advance soon encountered heavy resistance among the scrub and thorn bushes. It was soon apparent that no advance could be made and Monash ordered a withdrawal. When the 4 battalions of the brigade were able to regroup, it was found that as well as those killed or wounded, a significant number of both officers and other ranks were missing.
 
Among the missing were the Battalion Commander’s brother, Major Douglas Cannan and Private Wright S.J. Somehow, Sam’s absence was recorded as wounded and his family back in Howard received a telegram advising them of such with the cruel rejoiner that he was “wounded not seriously”.
 
As happens in all bureaucratic organisations, once something is recorded officially it is almost impossible to correct the error. In early 1916 and without any further news, Sam’s family sought assistance from the Howard Shire Chairman in seeking information about their son only to be advised that since no further information had come to hand it could be assumed that satisfactory progress was being made. A Miss Faithe Crawford wrote to base records on 4th April 1916 also seeking news and she was advised to write to Private Wright C/- AIF abroad. On 28th April 1916, a court of enquiry convened in Egypt determined that since there was no record of Sam in any hospital and his name did not appear on the lists of Prisoners of War provided by the Turkish Government to the American Ambassador in Constantinople; #1413 Private Wright had been killed in action. His family was duly notified of his death. Two months later, Sam’s younger brother was listed as missing at Pozieres; and his fate was not determined for 12 months.
 
Daniel and Sarah Wright were quite elderly and their daughter in law assisted with correspondence concerning the death of Sam and Douglas. Neither son’s remains were ever recovered and they were listed as missing for so long that any personal effects that would normally be sent to the next of kin were not recovered. At the end of the war, Samuel Wright was commemorated on the tablets of the Lone Pine Memorial at Anzac. Daniel and Sarah were each granted a pension of thirteen pounds per year to compensate for their loss.

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