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John Wright of the P.E. Town Guard and S.A. Veterans Regiment 1 month 4 weeks ago #94400

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John Wright

Corporal, Port Elizabeth Town Guard – Anglo Boer War
Private, South African Veterans Regiment – WWI

- Queens South Africa Medal to 717 CPL J. WRIGHT. PT: ELIZABETH T.G.
- British War Medal to PTE J. WRIGHT. S.A.V.R.

John Wright was born in Uitenhage in the Cape Province of South Africa in about 1861 the son of Henry Wright and his wife Ruth, born Lomas. Henry Wright, at the time of his death in 1906, was the retired Secretary to the Port Elizabeth Museum. John first hovered into sight in 1883 when, at the age of 23, and on the 28th April of that year, he wed 20 year old Adeline Adcock in the coastal town of Port Elizabeth (in the Eastern Cape). Wright was a Painter by trade - no doubt employed on the Cape Government Railway in that capacity.

At the time of the Anglo Boer War – fought between the two Boer Republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 – Wright stepped forward to join the ranks of the Port Elizabeth Town Guard and was assigned no. 717. Unlike most of the Town Guard members who were, in the case of Port Elizabeth, either deployed on local escort duty or assigned to guard the Van Staden’s River Waterworks (essential to the town’s well-being); Wright had the singular distinction of being employed elsewhere in the Cape Colony.

We know this courtesy of the Supplementary Roll to the issue of his Queens Medal which read, in the Remarks column, thus: -

“On escort duty by rail to various parts of the Colony outside the district of Port Elizabeth in charge of Ordnance and Army Service stores.”
That he was deployed outside of the normal ambit of his area of operations should have, to my mind, entitled him to the Cape Colony clasp but he had to settle, like most other Town Guardsmen, for no clasp to his Queens Medal. His added responsibilities, added to his age (he would have been 40 years old) could be the reason why he was promoted to the rank of Corporal. In total there were only eleven men designated for this task – aside from Wright, these were: -

• 1062 Pte. James Scott
• 1136 Pte. W. Sellers
• 1084 Pte. A. Thorogood
• 1089 Sgt. A. Townsend
• 1120 Pte. H. Wilson
• 739 Pte. A. Willett
• 229 Pte. John Edwards
• 445 L/Cpl. J.C. McAllister
• 613 Pte. J.C. Stewart and
• 1138 Pte. H.J. Collins

The marauding Boers did come surprisingly close to Port Elizabeth in their quest to not only reach the sea but to gather conscripts from the local Dutch to their cause and to look for much-needed food supplies and fresh mounts for their men.

By the time the Anglo Boer War broke out Wright and his wife had already brought six of their seven children into the world – these were: Frederick (1883); Alfred John (1886); Wilfred (1888); Arthur Ernest (1889); Bertram (1891) and Florence (1894). Charles Frederick came along in 1901.

Twelve years after the cessation of hostilities the Great War erupted onto the international stage. South Africa too was called upon to play her part – sending men into German South West Africa, German East Africa and to the slaughter fields of France and Flanders known as the Western Front. Wright was destined for none of these – he was already 54 years old when the war started on 4 August 1914 and, never one to shirk his duty, he enlisted for home service with the Port Elizabeth Company of the South African Veterans Regiment.

Assigned no. 3145 and the rank of Private, Wright commenced service supplying his next of kin as Mrs A. Wright of 19 Nelson Street, Port Elizabeth. Not much is known about the S.A.V.R. save for the fact that its members were deployed to take the place of those who were able and capable of an assault role. To the S.A.V.R. fell the lot of guarding Prisoners of War etc.

Wright asked for his discharge on 6 July 1915, coincidentally three days before the German surrender in South West Africa. He returned to civilian pursuits thereafter and was awarded the British War Medal for his efforts. This was dispatched to him on 31 July 1923. He passed away on 23 December 1941 at the age of 80 years and 7 months at his home – 19 Nelson Street -from a Cerebral Hemorrhage with Paralysis. That paralysis had him firmly in her grip can be evidenced by his inability to append his signature to his Last Will and Testament which was drawn up on 1 August 1938 by which time his debility had been in full swing for three years. He was a retired Painter with the South African Railways and Harbours.