Liverpool & South West Lancashire FHS - Forum

Off and on, over a long period I have been slogging through the Town Hall RofH for obvious queries and errors and found a curiously-ranked 'WRIGHT, P.', shown as '1st Cl. Pilot', but with nothing in the column for service, ship, regiment etc. I knew that at least one of our Pilot vessels had been lost, but an enquiry to Liverpool Pilotage Service brought a swift answer that he was not listed by them as ever having been a river pilot.

I found him on CWGC's register as having been in the Royal Flying Corps, not as a pilot, but as a Private, 1st Class, and died in the week after the Armistice. His burial was at Walton Park Cemetery and I suspect it may be a private grave, not CWGC, if anyone cares to look!

D

He's in the Hebrew Burial Ground,

not sure this will open, if not on Anc,

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cg ... d=59464227&

Thank you, Bert. That helps to round off the story.
D

Coincidentally I was making enquiries about this man only this morning. This is what I have on him, and yes it is a Family Grave, although I don't have details who else is in the same plot.

Private 1st Class 76789 Peter William Wright Royal Air Force, Aeroplane Experimental Station

Date of Death 16/11/1918
Date of Burial 23/11/1918
Age 21
Medals Although no Medal Roll found he would have been entitled to Victory Medal andBritish Medal
Civilian Occupation Wire Rope Strander
Physical Description 5’ ½” in height. Tattoo marks B.L. on forearm, Nelly, Peter, crossed hands on heart and Nelly on heart.
Date of Entry 24 April, 1917
Died Of pneumonia on 16 November 1918

Details from the Burial Register
Cq. 326 76.A.D East Family Grave £2.10.0 Peter William Wright, Military Hospital, Ranelagh Rd, Ipswich, 23rd November, 1918 21 years.

Family - SON OF PETER WILLIAM AND ELIZABETH WRIGHT, OF 3, AVON TERRACE, TORR ST., LIVERPOOL.

In 1911 at 3, 5 Ct Torr Street, North Everton Peter Wright age 39, a carter on the docks and his wife, Elizabeth, 35, a housekeeper, with their children Peter age 15 a wireworker, Alice 13, William 11, Ethel 4 and Margaret 2.

At the same address in 1901 Peter W was 29, a coal carter, his wife Elizabeth 25 and children Peter W 4, Alice J 2 and William 3 months.

Details from Muster Roll 1918
Air Force No. 76,789
Name Wright P
RNAS or RFA Trade Classification Misc. (Labour)
Remustered to Air Force Trade Classification Labourer
RNAS Rating or RFC Rank or Appointment A Mech. 3
New Rank in Air Force Private 2
Date of Joining 24.4.17
Date of Last Promotion -
Normal rate Air Force Pay 1 6
Terms of Enlistment D.W.

and from his Service Papers
Birth date 1897
Religious Denomination C of E
Current Engagement in H.M. Forces - Army
Period - Date Current Engagement Commenced
Man Service 2H H17
Age at that Date 20A/12
Duration - D of W
Date of Actual Entry into RFC - 24.4.17
RAF 1.4.18

Civilian Occupation - Wire Rope Strander

Person to be informed of casualties
Father - Peter Wright, 5 Avon Terrace, Everton, Liverpool

Discharge deemed 30.4.1920

Enlisted (Mob) 3/am 24.4.17
Field? RAF Pte 2 1.4.18
AM 0/153 Reclassified Pte 1 1.4.18

Died pneumonia 16.11.18

In 1917, the Experimental Aircraft Flight of the Central Flying School was transferred from Upavon, Wiltshire to a site on the heathland at Martlesham, Suffolk, and on 16 January 1917 Martlesham Heath Airfield was officially opened, as an experimental airfield. The unit was renamed the Aeroplane Experimental Unit, Royal Flying Corps. After the end of World War I the site continued to be used and was, once again, renamed as the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment of the Royal Air Force.

Martlesham Heath was first used as a Royal Flying Corps airfield during World War I. In 1917 it became home to the Aeroplane Experimental Unit, RFC which moved from Upavon with the site named as the Aeroplane Experimental Station which became the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE) in 1924. The A&AEE carried the evaluation and testing of many of the aircraft types and much of the armament and other equipment that would later be used during World War II

"Coincidentally I was making enquiries about this man only this morning."
Yes, amazing!
D

I'm only sorry I haven't managed to discover just what work he would have been doing. I tried ringing the RAF Records at Gloucester but they advise that all their WWI archives have been passed to the National Archives, but what I have found may well be all there is.

Hi Daggers, Dont know how to insert a photo here,or even whether I would be allowed to ?,[sorted] but his resting place is most definitely commemorated by a CWGC headstone,and is also most definitely at Walton Parochial Cemetery.
However,I now know what I was missing so :-

VicMar1 wrote:Hi Daggers, Dont know how to insert a photo here,or even whether I would be allowed to ?, but his resting place is most definitely commemorated by a CWGC headstone,and is most definitely at Walton Parochial Cemetery. I will PM you with a photo.

Instructions for uploading an image to the Forum can be found here...
http://forum.liverpool-genealogy.org.uk ... =16&t=9817

DOOOOOH! Thanks DS, just managed to suss it out and uploaded it to PB (Id lost my password to get in)

Thanks very much for the photo which helps to confirm all the information put together here by our clever friends.

Like Katie with her casualty lists, I sometimes despair of the way in which the Town Hall Roll of Honour was put together, with so many errors, as here, or duplications.

Daggers

Indeed ! I just despair of the Town Halls involvement in any archival role.
Walton Park is a mess, and then some.

VicMar1 wrote: Walton Park is a mess, and then some.

You can say that again!

Daggers it helped that I was working in the reverse direction, ie from the grave and the burial entry.

Bertieone's find intrigues me,seeing as how Mary and myself have spent considerable time collating and weaseling information from just about every source imaginable concerning the founding and history of this site and its occupants.
"Hebrew Cemetery" ??
According to their list of other wargraves in those grounds ALL of those men & women would have had to have been jewish would they not ?

Having spent many many hours entering these records into a database I can definitely say that the religion of the deceased was not a primary entry in all of the thousands of names I have processed so far.
I believe that the whole point of it being a Parochial Cemetery was based on a Christian ethic,surely ? I have never heard it referred to as a Hebrew Burial Ground.
There is a Jewish Cemetery not so far away I am led to believe.
Looks like 'Find a Grave' is as reliable as Anc***** ?

The entry is definitely for our Peter William Wright as the number given is the same. I also notice that there isn't a headstone photograph on the Findagrave site. I can only think that an incorrect assumption has been made by the submitter, it could be easily done by someone saying "the cemetery off Rice Lane".

Checking others of the 31 entries for the Hebrew Cemetery I notice they also list the others who are buried in Walton Parochial Cemetery.

Having clicked the link to the submitter, I notice that they are not very amenable to errors being notified to them, wonder why?