Walter Wright was born in the port city of Iquique, then in Peru, but now in Chile, in 1872, the son of Joseph Hume and Margaret Wright (née Anderson). He had a least at least three older siblings – Margaret, Johnston and Josephine, who were all born in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland.
It is not known how his parents came to be in Peru at the time of his birth, and nothing is known of his father’s occupation; however, in May 1865, stories appeared in many Scottish newspapers concerning a man named Joseph Hume Wright, a Glasgow warehouseman, who had swindled a number of people out of money and subsequently disappeared despite a reward of £200 being offered for his apprehension. Then, in 1870 and 1871, further reports had appeared in newspapers throughout Great Britain stating that this same man had been sighted in Buenos Aires, Argentina, using a different name! Whereas it is not known with any degree of certainty if this Joseph Hume Wright was Walter Wright’s father, the links with South America make it quite possible.
By 1881, Walter was living in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland, with his mother and siblings and his mother was stated to be a widow at that time.
After completing his education, Walter worked as a cartwright and later, a timber salesman, and in 1901, he is believed to have married Janet Anderson Gourlie, most likely in Glasgow. The couple had five children.
By 1911, the family home was at ‘Dechmont’ Stoke Park, Coventry, Warwickshire, England, and Walter Wright was managing director of The Dunlop Rim and Wheel Company Ltd., of Coventry.
In January 1915, he had travelled to New York City, in the United States of America, to conduct business with The Standard Welding Company of 2, Rector Street. He booked his return passage - with ticket No. 46166 - to Liverpool on the Lusitania, and joined the liner at Pier 54, on the morning of 1st May 1915, before she left on her last ever trans-Atlantic voyage. When he boarded, he was allocated saloon class room B102 which was the personal responsibility of First Class Bedroom Steward Percy Penny who came from Aigburth, a suburb of Liverpool.
The liner’s scheduled 10.00 a.m. departure then had to be postponed whilst she accommodated passengers, some crew and some cargo from the Anchor Lines vessel Cameronia, which the British Admiralty unexpectedly requisitioned for use as a troop ship and the Lusitania finally got under way at 12.27 p.m., when she slipped into the North River and eventually out into the Atlantic.
When she was torpedoed, six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, by the German submarine U-20, she was twelve miles off the coast of southern Ireland and only hours away from her home port. Walter Wright, unfortunately, became one of the fatal casualties of this action. He was aged 43 years.
In The Cork Examiner for Monday 17th May 1915, the following advertisement appeared concerning him: -
"LUSITANIA" DISASTER.
MISSING
MR WALKER WRIGHT, 1st Saloon Passenger, a description of whom is given below :
Age 42. Sandy hair and complexion, sandy moustache, stout build, height about 5ft 8in., small hands (a tattooed star on the back of one of them), blue eyes (the left one glass) ; possibly carrying a gold presentation watch engraved with his name.
A suitable reward will be given to anyone finding the body.
Communicate, immediately with Manus O'Donnel, Rob Roy Hotel, Queenstown, or the Dunlop Rubber Co. Ltd., Oriel House, Westland Row, Dublin.
Despite the fullness of the advertisement, (and the fact that it inadvertently named him Walker Wright), no trace of Walter Wright’s body was ever discovered. As a result, he has no known grave.
He is, however, commemorated on a memorial stone in London Road Cemetery in the City of Coventry.
It takes the form of a square granite column with a carved top and the following words incised on one of the faces: -
IN MEMORY OF
WALTER WRIGHT.
WHO WAS LOST ON THE
ATLANTIC LINER “LUSITANIA”,
SUNK BY TORPEDO
7TH MAY 1915.
ERECTED BY FRIENDS AND
COLLEAGUES
AS A MARK OF THEIR ESTEEM
AND OF THEIR SENSE OF LOSS
IN HIS EARLY DEATH
Bedroom Steward Penny, who had looked after Mr. Wright in room B102, did survive the sinking, however and eventually made it back to his home in Aigburth.
Administration of Walter Walker’s estate was granted to his widow, Janet, at London, on 30th September 1915 and his effects amounted to £3,788-18s-7d., (£3,788.93p.).
Scotland Modern and Civil Births 1855 – 2019, 1881 Census of Scotland, 1891 Census of Scotland, 1901 Census of Scotland, 1911 Census of England & Wales, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, UK Incoming Passenger Lists 1878 – 1960, Cunard Records, Birmingham Daily Post, Glasgow Herald, Morning Post, Perthshire Constitutional & Journal, Probate Records, PRO 22/71, PRO BT 100/345, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Kevin Varty, Kate Wills, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.