WRIGHT John Thomas Victor

John Thomas Victor Wright was born in the first quarter of 1893 at Cornwall to parents John Thomas and Mary (nee Penrose). He had spent 3 years in the Infantry in England prior to being discharged as medically unfit. John stood 5ft 5 inches tall, weighed 125Lbs with a fresh complexion, brown eyes and black hair. In June 1911 he had married Catherine Ivy Popperwell in Cornwall and at the time that John enlisted on 19th October 1916 at Brisbane they were living at Tewantin where he worked as a gardener. Following acceptance into the A.I.F he was assigned as Private, 8th Reinforcements, 52nd Battalion and went into 11th Depot Battalion at Enoggera. On 22nd December he embarked aboard H.M.A.T A64 ‘Demosthenes’ and sailed for England where he disembarked at Plymouth on 3rd March 1917. He marched into 13th Training Brigade at Codford where he stayed until sailing on 13th August from Southampton to Havre. Once in camp at 4th Australian Divisional Base Depot at Havre he was found to be medically unfit to serve suffering from lung and feet conditions. It was revealed that he had suffered from infantile paralysis while young and had endured his legs in irons for some time resulting in underdeveloped leg and thigh muscles. John was not able to endure route marches and before being returned to England from France was quite debilitated. He arrived in Weymouth and went into No. 2 Command Depot to await transport back to Australia. He sailed aboard H.M.A.T A32 ‘Themistocles’ from Devonport and was discharged in Brisbane on 14th February 1918. John was denied a war service pension on the grounds that his condition had been pre-existing. He and his wife Catherine returned to England aboard the ‘Orontes’ which left from Brisbane and arrived in London on 9th September 1919. John returned to live in Cornwall and died at Truro in September 1961, aged 72 years.

Shire of Noosa Roll of Honor, Shire Council Chambers, Pelican Street, Tewantin