Friends of the Somme - Mid Ulster Branch  
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19833   2nd Lieutenant Matthew John Wright
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Dated added: 30/12/2015   Last updated: 19/01/2022
Personal Details
Regiment/Service: 14th Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles (British Army)
Date Of Birth: 23/02/1888
Died: 01/07/1916 (Killed in Action)
Age: 28
Summary      
Matthew was the son of Rev. William and Charlotte Wright. Matthew Wright was born on 23rd. February 1888. The family lived in Newtownards. Matthew was in the employment of Messrs John Stevenson Ltd, Coalisland for a time. Prior to enlisting, he was a cashier. He enlisted in the 14th Royal Irish Rifles (the Young Citizen Volunteers). He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in January 1915. Second Lieutenant Matthew Wright was the 14th Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles when he was killed in action at the Somme on 1st July 1916. After the war a small headstone was placed in Thiepval Wood in memory of him. It is now in the Ulster Tower for safekeeping. The Masonic Lodge in Newtownards was renamed in memory of 2nd Lieut. Matthew Wright.
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 Matthew John Wright
Cemetery Details
Cemetery: Thiepval Memorial
  Thiepval, Somme
Grave Ref: Face 15A
CWGC Casualty 1556155
Summary      
The Thiepval Memorial will be found on the D73, next to the village of Thiepval, off the main Bapaume to Albert road (D929). Each year a major ceremony is held at the memorial on 1 July. The Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme is a war memorial to 72,337 missing British and South African servicemen who died in the Battles of the Somme of the First World War between 1915 and 1918, with no known grave. It is near the village of Thiepval, Picardy in France. Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, Thiepval has been described as "the greatest executed British work of monumental architecture of the twentieth century"
References and Links
No Link Reference Map Doc
1 1901 Census lists Wright family Lists Matthew as age 12 living with the family at house 3 in Corporation South, Newtownards, Down)
2 1911 Census lists Wright family Lists Matthew as age 22 living with the family at house 21 in Circular Street, Newtownards, Down)
3 Forum - South East History Boards Details of 2nd Lieutenant Matthew John Wright
4 Ministers and Sons of Ministers Five of Rev Dr Wright's sons served in the war
5 National Archives UK Medal Card can be purchased here
6 Newtownards website (obselete link) Photo of Matthew Wright and lists Wright family details
7 North Down & Ards War Dead Listed on Newtownards War Memorial
8 North Down & Ards War Dead Details of 2nd Lieutenant Matthew John Wright
9 World War One Battlefields Photo and details of the small headstone in the Ulster Tower
10 Wright Memorial Masonic Lodge No. 448 Newtownards Masonic Lodge named after 2nd Lieutenant Matthew John Wright
Dungannon District's War Dead Acknowledgements 2015-2023