Ernest's Story.
EARLY LIFE
Ernest Wright was baptised on 29 December 1896 at Holy Trinity Church, Hurdsfield, Macclesfield, the son of Emily Rushton Wright (nee Goodwin) and Joseph Wright, a general carrier. In 1901, four-year-old Ernest was living at 43 Fence Street, Macclesfield with his parents and siblings Florence (11), Edith (10), Emily (8), Joseph (7), Ethel (5), Lily (3) and Wilfrid (1).
Ernest's mother died in 1905 and in 1907 his father married Fanny Hambleton. By 1911 the family had moved to 41 Brook Street and included two more children: Alice (9) and Stanley (7). Ernest had left school and was employed as an errand boy for a boot shop.
In 1913, while employed as a clerk, Ernest enrolled at Macclesfield Technical School to further his education; one of the classes he attended was typewriting.
WW1 SERVICE
Ernest must have joined the Army soon after the start of the war and was drafted to France on 2 January 1915. He was officially reported missing on 4 June 1915 and was later assumed to have been killed in action on 8 May 1915.
COMMEMORATION
Private Ernest Wright has no known grave and is commemorated on Panel ref. 19-22 on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial in Belgium. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission holds casualty details for Private Ernest Wright, and he is listed on the Imperial War Museum's Lives of the First World War website.
In Macclesfield, Private Ernest Wright is commemorated on the Christ Church School and Hurdsfield Holy Trinity Church war memorials.
SOURCES
GRO (England & Wales) Index: Births, Marriages, Deaths
Diocese of Chester Parish Baptisms (Find My Past): Holy Trinity Church, Hurdsfield
Census (England & Wales): 1901, 1911
National School Admission Registers and Log-books (FindMyPast): Macclesfield Technical School
WWI British Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects (Ancestry)
WWI Service Medal and Award Rolls (Ancestry)
WWI Casualty Lists (The Genealogist)
Commonwealth War Graves Commission website
Research by Rosie Rowley, Congleton.