Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

From How We Served
 
The final resting place for; - V14809 Private John Wright of London, England and North Carlton, Victoria, had cited his World War One service as having been with the British Home Army. Following the end of hostilities in November 1918, John would immigrate to Australia to begin a new life in the decades of Peace which would follow.

With the outbreak of a Second World War, John, now aged 55, was employed as a confectioner, and presented himself for service with the Australian Military Forces on the 22nd of May 1942. John was accepted for fulltime duty within Australia and was initially posted to Headquarters Garrison Brigade before being formally taken on strength with the 17th Garrison Battalion.

With this Unit John was tasked with the guarding of the Internment Camps where he was based at Tatura, Victoria.

John’s service with this Unit would be continuous until he was evacuated for hospitalization due to illness on the 31st of May 1944. Admitted into the 29th Camp Hospital, John’s health only worsened, and he was moved to the 115th Australian General Hospital (Heidelberg) where he was admitted on the 2nd of June.

There was to be no improvement in John’s declining health, and whilst still under hospital care, John succumbed to illness on the 18th of September 1944, at the senior age of 59.

Following his death whilst on fulltime duty with the Australian Military Forces, Private John Wright, a service veteran of both the ‘Great War’ and the Second World War, was formally interred within Springvale War Cemetery, Victoria.