Sam was born on 9th May 1908 in Exeter, Devon, to Francis 'Frank' George Wright (39), a tinsmith and plumber, and Emma Wright (nee Bennett) (36), a former domestic servant and housewife.
Sam was the seventh 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)
Eleven years before Sam was born, his older brother Charles passed away, aged only five weeks, in March 1897, in Exeter.
1911 Census:
Like his older brothers before him, Sam attended Rack Street Central School. He began, aged two and half, on 21st November 1910. His date of birth is given incorrectly on his school record (as is also the case on his brothers Walter's and Len's), making him supposedly just turned three (exactly the same happens with Walter and Len). It seems as soon as their sons could pass for being three years old, their parents sent them off to the infant school and put a false birthday. With so many kids in the house, one can see why they might be eager to get them off to school as soon as possible. Sam left Rack Street Central School on 26th October 1912, aged five, when he and his family moved house.
It was around 1912 that young Sam and his family moved out of the West Quarter to 11 Clinton Street, also in Exeter.
Sam was six, when the First World War began. His older brother George served. 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 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. Sam would have been ten years old at the time.
In Oct/Nov/Dec 1928, Sam (20), a hairdresser, married May Pearl Shapley (25), in Exeter
Sam and May had one son:
- Terrance I 1929 -
Sadly, May passed away in her late twenties or early thirties, sometime between 1929 and 1939, for Sam is listed as a widower come the 1939 Census.
In March 1939, when Sam was thirty, his father Frank passed away, aged seventy, in Exeter.
At the dawn of the Second World War, Sam was still living at 11 Clinton Street, with his elderly widowed mother, his elder brother Will (also a widower), and maternal uncle William Bennett. The closed record on the 1939 Census is likely Sam's young son Terrance.
1939 Census:
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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 |
In his thirties, Sam remarried. In Jan/Feb/Mar 1943, Sam (34), a master hairdresser, married Joyce Margaret Rendell (23), in Exeter.
Sam and Joyce had two daughters:
- Margaret E 1944 -
- Frances I 1952 -
In December 1944, when Sam was thirty-six, his mother Emma passed away, aged seventy-three, in Exeter.
From 1950 to 1972, the phone book lists Sam as a hairdresser and chiropodist at 3a Alphington Street, Exeter.
On 10th April 1977, Sam passed away, aged sixty-eight, in Exeter.
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