Date of birth: 24/01/1884

Place of birth: Bradford, Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom

Country: England, United Kingdom

Force: British Expeditionary Force

Rank: Private

Service number: S/40377

Units:  —  Seaforth Highlanders, 7th Bn.  (Last known unit)

Date of death: 12/10/1917

Place of death: Wallemolen, Passendale, Belgium

Cause of death: Killed in action (K.I.A.)

Age: 33

British War Medal Medal

Victory Medal Medal

Wright Firth was a private of the Seaforth Highlanders 7th Battalion, 26th Brigade, 9th (Scottish) Division. On Friday 12 October 1917, they fought in the First Battle of Passchendaele, near the northern end of the Passchendaele Ridge. They attacked at 5.25 a.m., zero hour. Their objective was to pass through the 8th Battalion Black Watch Regiment and the 10th Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, who took Adler Farm and reached their objective Source Trench. Thereafter, the Seaforths had to go on to the Blue Dotted line with the 5th Battalion Cameron Highlanders in support. The first company of the Seaforths, sadly depleted by enemy fire, advanced and filled the space between two leading ones of the Black Watch. Although by this time the Royal Scots had joined the others and a mixed party went on to enter the eastern end of Wallemolen. Being heavily enfiladed from both flanks, they were driven out and had to fall back on the Cemetery-Inch House line on the Green Line. Private Wright Firth was probably killed during one of these actions around Wallemolen.

26 Infantry Brigade: 7 Battalion Seaforth Highlanders. (The National Archives, KEW (TNA), WO 95/1765/4). https://nationalarchives.gov.uk Sources used

Ewing John, The History of the Ninth (Scottish) Division 1914-1919 (Uckfield, Naval & Military Press, 2006). Sources used

McCarthy, Chris, Passchendaele: the Day-by-Day Account (Londen, Unicorn Publishing Group, 2018). Sources used

Commonwealth War Graves Commission Database https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/1631934

Namenlijst (In Flanders Fields Museum) https://namenlijst.org/publicsearch/#/person/_id=2adb6b38-d35e-4a49-b761-2deb001b5d95

Lives of the First World War (Imperial War Museum) https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/lifestory/1240613