Great Grandfather Ernest 'Len' Leonard Wright

My Great Grandfather Len (1905 - 1981) was a railway refreshment attendant, later a road transport worker, and father of seven.

Ernest 'Len' Leonard was born on 17th January 1905 in Exeter, Devon, to Francis 'Frank' George Wright (36), a tinsmith (a tin plate worker for an oil colour merchant), and Emma Wright (nee Bennett) (33).

Len was the sixth of ten children:

• Francis 'Will' William  1891 - 1967 (76)
• George Charles  1893 - 1918 (25)
• Charles Arthur  1897 - 1897 (5 weeks old)
• Thomas 'Tom' Edwin  1898 - 1977 (78 or 79)
• Walter Henry  1900 - 1986 (85/86)
• Ernest 'Len' Leonard  1905 - 1981 (76)
• Samuel 'Sam' John  1908 - 1977 (68)
• Florence 'Florrie' Ellen  1910 - 1999 (88)
• Doris May  1912 - 1991 (79) 
• Harold Reginald  1914 - 1985 (70)

Alas Len's older brother Charles passed away as a baby, eight years before Len was born.

A week and a half before his third birthday, Len began attending Rack Street Central School. He started on 6th January 1908. On the school register, his birthday is incorrectly given as December 1904. I wonder if the was purposely done to make Len just old enough (three years old) to start school that year.

Of Rack Street Central School, His Majesty's Inspectors Reports noted in 1907 that "Managers and Teacher do all in their power for the benefit, both moral and mental, of the children, who are almost without exception of the poorest class."

Len left the school on 23th December 1913, aged eight, when he transferred to another school.

1911 Census:

Len and his family lived in Teigh/Tighe Place, a small court off Rack Street, in Exeter's West Quarter. Alas the West Quarter was overcrowded and poverty stricken, an historic but poor area of Exeter. Bathhouses, temperance societies and soup kitchens were set up to help alleviate the appalling conditions; nonetheless, in 1925, the council began plans for demolition, clearance, and re-building of the West Quarter. Most families were relocated to new houses in Burnthouse Lane by the mid 1930s.

Around 1912, before the clearing, Len and his family moved from the West Quarter to 11 Clinton Street, Exeter.

Len's older brother George served in the First World War. After four years in the Territorial Royal Army Medical Corps, George, aged twenty-one, joined the 7th Reserve (Cyclist) Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment as a private, on 17th December 1914. George passed away, aged twenty-five, in March 1918, in Exeter, when Len was thirteen.

My father recalls being told that an uncle of his mother, Delma, struggled after his experience in the First World War, and lived in a shed in the bottom of the garden, and wouldn't go in the house. Len's older brother George seems to be the only uncle of Delma who served in the First World War, so it seems likely that my father's family story is alas about him.

After leaving school, Len worked for the Southern Railway as as a refreshment attendant.

Len as a young man in the 1920s

This rare footage of Exeter from the 1920s shows the Exeter that Len would have known as a young man. We see trains he may have worked on, streets he would have walked down.

On 22nd July 1925, Len (20) married Ivy Jane Boobier (20) in Exeter. Ivy was around four months pregnant with twins at the time.

Len and Ivy's wedding in the summer of 1925

Len and Ivy are stood centre. Len's parents, Frank and Emma are together on the far left. Len's oldest brother, Will, is stood third from right. Ivy's older sister, Ellen, is stood second from left.

Len and Ivy had seven children (three daughters and four sons):

• Delma Margaret Emma  1925 - 1992 (66)
• Mercia 'Merce' Eileen Mary  1925 - 2017 (91)
• Barbara Kathleen Ellen  1927 - 1990 (63)
• Cyril Walter G  1929 - 1997 (68)
• Gordon C 1930 - ?
• Desmond Clifford E 1932 - 1998 (66)
• Phillip L J  1940 - ?

The electoral roll of 1928 shows Len was living at Crannaford Cottage in Broadclyst, a village about five miles north east of Exeter.

In March 1939, when Len was thirty-four, his father Frank passed away, aged seventy, in Exeter.

By the start of the Second World War, Len and his family had moved to Burnthouse Lane, Exeter, and Len was working as a road transport worker (heavy loader).

1939 Census:

Coloured Photograph of Burnthouse Lane in the 1930s

Another Coloured Photograph of Burnthouse Lane in the 1930s

The City Council had been inspired by the Garden City movement in their design and development of the Burnthouse Lane estate, which, alongside modern housing, included new schools, churches, a recreation ground and a pub. Alas suburban Burnthouse Lane was soon nicknamed 'Siberia', as some of the heart of the West Quarter was lost. A small minority took to vandalising the new buildings and stealing the freshly planted shrubs and trees. Also the live firing of guns from the nearby Topsham Barracks often broke the quiet of the estate. Still, compared to the West Quarter, the homes of the Burnthouse Lane estate were a revelation.

Len did not serve in the Second War World, being in his late thirties and having poor eye sight.

On 25th July 1940, it was reported in the Express and Echo that Len was fined for black-out offences:

The Wright family, c 1940

Stood from left to right: Walter, Doris, Florrie and Harold

Sat from left to right: Sam, Tom, Emma, Will and Len

On 14th December 1944, when Len was thirty-nine, his mother Emma passed away, aged seventy-three, in Exeter.

Alas I know little of Len's later life, as my father was not close to the Wright side of the family.

Len (59) and Ivy (59) summer holidaying in Woolacombe, 1964

In 1978, when Len was seventy-three, his wife Ivy passed away, aged seventy-three, in Exeter.

In 1981, Len himself passed away, aged seventy-six, in Exeter.