Great Great Aunt Doris May Littlejohn (nee Wright)

My Great Great Aunt Doris (1912 - 1991) was a housewife, mother of two, and a younger sister of my Great Grandfather Ernest 'Len' Leonard Wright (1905 - 1981).

Doris was born on 6th May 1912 in Exeter, Devon, to Francis 'Frank' George Wright (43), a tinsmith and plumber, and Emma Wright (nee Bennett) (41), a former domestic servant and housewife.

Doris was the ninth of ten children (eight boys and two girls):

• 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 or 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)

Fifteen years before Doris was born, her older brother Charles passed away, aged only five weeks, in March 1897, in Exeter.

Around 1912, the Wright family moved out of Exeter's poor West Quarter to 11 Clinton Street, also in Exeter. Doris, if born, would have been a young baby.

Doris was only a toddler, when the First World War began. Her older brother George served. After four years in the Territorial Royal Army Medical Corps, George, aged twenty-one, joined the 7th Reserved (Cyclist) Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment as a private, on 17th December 1914. He served at 'Home' until only the 6th January 1915 - only twenty days later - when he was deemed unfit. George passed away, aged only twenty-five, in March 1918, at home in Exeter. Doris would have only been six at the time.

Wedding Photograph of one of Doris' older brothers, c. early 1920's, Exeter

Stood far left is Doris' father Frank, sat from left is Doris' mother Emma, sat centre left is Doris, and sat centre right is Doris' older sister Florrie. Two Wright brothers stand centre as groom and centre left as best man.

The fashion clearly puts the photograph around the 1920's; the girls look around ten (young enough to be showing their knees), putting it in the early 1920's - the only Wright brother who married in the early 1920's in Exeter was Walter. And looking at the photograph of the Wright siblings two decades later, the two brothers here bear resemblance to Walter (groom) and Tom (best man). Walter married Winifred Cox in the summer of 1913, in Exeter. If it is their wedding photograph, the would make Doris eleven, and Florrie just turned thirteen.

In Apr/May/Jun 1930, Doris (17 or 18) married William Alfred Littlejohn (20) in the St Thomas district. Doris was somewhere between mere days or weeks to six months pregnant, when she married William, for she gave birth to her eldest child in Oct/Nov/Dec 1930.

Doris and William had two children:

• Pamela E  1930 - 
• Trevor Allen  1935 -

In March 1939, when Doris was twenty-six, her father Frank passed away, aged seventy, in Exeter.

By the dawn of the Second World War, Doris, now in her late twenties, was living at 21 Tennyson Avenue, Exeter, with her two young children. Interestingly her husband William doesn't seem to be with them.

1939 Census:

The Wright Family, c.1940

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

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

In December 1944, when Doris was thirty-two, her mother Emma passed away, aged seventy-three, in Exeter.

In Jul/Aug/Sep 1991, Doris herself passed away, aged seventy-nine, in Exeter.