Will was born on 30th November 1891, in Exeter, Devon, to Francis 'Frank' George Wright (about 23), a tinsmith and plumber, and Emma Wright (nee Bennett) (20), a former domestic servant and housewife.
His parents had only married in Jul/Aug/Sep 1891, meaning Emma was between four and seven months pregnant with Will, when she married Frank.
Will may have been named for her mother's older brother William Bennett and his father Francis 'Frank' Wright.
Will was baptised on 5th January 1892 in St Mary Major, Exeter. At the time of his baptism, the family lived on Prospect Place, in Exeter's poor West Quarter.
Will was the eldest 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)
In late 1892/early 1893, when Will was one years old, his family moved from Prospect Place to 5 Mermaid Lodge, also in Exeter's West Quarter. Yet, by early 1897, when Will was five, they were back living at 10 Prospect Place. Around 1899/1900, the family moved again to nearby 6 Teigh Place, another small court off Rack Street.
In 1897, when Will was five, his younger brother Charles passed away, aged only five weeks, in Exeter.
On 3rd October 1898, a six-year-old Will began attending Rack Street Central School. He left the school on 22nd May 1905, aged thirteen.
1901 Census:
As a young man, Will left home to work as a shop assistance for a boot maker, lodging with the Morrish family in Bideford, nearly forty miles north-west of her native Exeter.
1911 Census:
Will was twenty-two, when the First World War began. Though I cannot find evidence that Will served, I know his younger brother George did. 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. He served at 'Home' until only until the 6th January 1915 - only twenty days later - after being deemed unfit. George passed away, aged only twenty-five, in March 1918, in Exeter. George was the closest sibling in age to Will - the next surviving being seven years younger -; I wonder then if Will and George were close, and if Will particularly felt the loss of his brother.
Around 1912, Will's family moved out of the West Quarter to 11 Clinton Street, Exeter. Electoral registers show that by 1922, Will was back living at the family home, with his parents and unmarried younger siblings.
In Oct/Nov/Dec 1915, Will (23 or 24), a shoe shop assistant, married Lina Purse (23), in her native Chard, just over the border in Somerset. Lina's Devonian father Philip James Purse was also a boot and shoe maker - I wonder if Will had met him, and subsequently Lina, through their work.
The young couple moved to Cannock in Staffordshire for a few years. There, their two children (one daughter and one son) were born:
- Edna M 1917 -
- Francis 'Phillip' Phillip James 1918 - 1937 (19 years old)
Sadly Will and Lina's marriage was short-lived. In Jan/Feb/Mar 1922, when Will was thirty, Lina passed away, aged only twenty-nine, at the Wright family home at 11 Clinton Street, back in Exeter.
A newspaper article
shows that by 1926, Will, a widower in his mid thirties, had moved up from shoe
shop assistant to shop manager, working for national shoe company Messrs.
Lennards, at their branch at 270 High Street, Exeter.
On 3rd September
1926, Will served two sisters from Topsham, a Mrs Irene Clapp and her
sixteen-year-old sister Emma Newman. Will briefly left them, looking at some
pairs of shoes, to attend to some other costumers; on returning to put away the
shoes, he noticed at least one pair were missing. He informed a local
policeman, who upon searching the bags of the two young woman, found the
missing pairs of shoes. Irene told the policeman, "she did not know what
made her take the shoes, but she was willing to pay for them". Later in
court, Irene pleaded guilty; whilst Emma denied any knowledge of the theft, on
which point Irene backed her younger sister. Irene's husband "stated he
did not think his wife was absolutely responsible for her actions". Irene
was fined 40s (or if this could not be paid, to serve one month in prison), and
Emma was put on a twelve-month probation.
On 17th October 1937, Will's 19-year-old son Phillip passed away. The young man had been in a motor bike accident on 23rd June. He lay unconscious in hospital for three weeks, but appeared to gradually improve and was discharged and returned home to the care of his paternal grandmother Emma Wright on 6th August. Then on the morning of the 16th October, he suddenly took a turn for the worse, complaining of pains in his head and feeling giddy. He was readmitted to the hospital that evening unconscious. He passed away on the evening of the 17th. A post-mortem revealed the cause of death to be meningitis following fracture of the skull.
Phillip had been brought up by his grandmother - his mother Lina having passed away, when he was a baby; and his father Will, according to a 1939 newspaper report, living and working in Canada. However, by 1939, Will was back living in the Wright family home in Clinton Street, Exeter.
At the dawn of the Second World War, Will was still living at 11 Clinton Street, with his elderly widowed mother, younger brother Sam, and maternal uncle William Bennett.
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| 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 |
On 14th December 1944, when Will was fifty-three, his mother Emma passed away, aged seventy-three, in Exeter.
In Oct/Nov/Dec 1947, widower Will (55 or 56), a shop assistant for a boot and show maker, married Cornish widow Alma Kate Seymour (nee Viant) (49) in Exeter.
Will and Alma would remove to her native Redruth, Cornwall. There, he worked as a relief manager with True-Form Boot and Shoe Co.
He was a keen suporter of Redruth RFC.
And Will was a member of the RAOB (Royal Antediluvian of Buffaloes)!
In Jul/Aug/Sep 1967, Will passed away, aged seventy-five, in Redruth.
He and Alma lived at 72 Drump Road, Redruth.
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