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An Imperial Yeomanry Surgeon Captain - John Henderson Wright 6 years 1 month ago #58142

Rory
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Dr John Henderson Wright, M.D.

Corporal, 1st Roxburgh (The Border) Mounted Rifles - Militia
Surgeon Captain, 27th Imperial Yeomanry – Anglo Boer War

- Queens South Africa Medal with clasps Cape Colony & South Africa 1902 to Capt. J.H. Wright, M.D. Imp. Yeo.
- Volunteer Forces Long Service Medal to Corpl. J.H. Wright, B.M.R. 1895

John Wright was an interesting man. His father, John Grant Wright, a Doctor of Divinity in the Free Church married his mother, Alice Henderson, in the Church of Kelso on 19 June 1850 laying the foundation for the birth of John Henderson Wright on 11 December 1854 – he was baptised in Kelso, Roxburgh on 24 January 1855. The family lived at Colville House. In 1872 he was a founding member of the 1st Roxburgh (The Border) Mounted Rifles – the local militia unit.

Colville House as it appeared in March 2018

Determining not to follow in his father’s footsteps a young John decided that a career in Medicine was for him and, to this end he took himself off to Edinburgh University to study anatomy and all that goes with it. Qualifying with a Bachelor of Medicine degree in 1876 at the age of 21 he went down to London to further his medical knowledge.

On 27 August 1878, when aged 23, he took a wife for himself in the Parish Church of Colinton, Edinburgh. The lady who claimed his affections was the 24 year old Nellie Alice Charlotte Hamilton Reddie, the daughter of an East India Merchant and resident of The Manse, Juniper Green. Wright was resident at 60 Lisson Grove in Marylebone, London at the time and was still boarding there in 1880 according to the Voter’s Roll for the Borough of Marylebone.

By the time the 1881 Scotland census came round the Wright’s had moved back to Scotland and were living in Bowmont Street, Pringle Bank in Kelso. Wright had started to prosper and, in the residence alongside his wife and 1 year old – John McDonald Henderson Wright – was a servant girl by the name of Elizabeth Russell. The Evening Standard of Monday, October 16, 1882 carried a report under the banner “Death in Church” wherein Wright was mentioned. In what must have been déjà vu for him the gentleman to whom he was required to administer was also a resident of the very Colville House in which he resided. The article read thus:-

“During religious service in Kelso Free Church yesterday afternoon, Mr John Henderson of Colville House, the senior elder, was seized with illness, and at once left the church for the Session house. Medical assistance was at once obtained but before Dr Wright’s arrival Mr Henderson expired. The deceased was, previous to his retirement, a draper and silk mercer in the town.”

Now established in his medical practice Wright, according to the 1890 Medical Directory, had moved into the family home, Colville House, and was doing medicals for several Assurance Companies and was an ardent member of the Berwickshire Natural Club. A year later, at the time of the 1891 Scotland census, the family had moved to Villa Forestfield Road in Kelso. John Junior, now eleven, had been joined by younger brother William (6) and sister Alice (3).

The Valuation Roll for the County of Roxburgh for the year 1892-93 – Parish of Kelso showed that Colville House, office and garden, Forestfield, was registered to the Proprietor John Henderson Wright, M.B., C.M. The yearly value of the property was estimated to be £65.

Life carried on in its usual fashion with Wright steadily improving his standing in the small community. The Citizen newspaper of Saturday, 27 January 1894 carried an article entitled “A Kelso Doctor on the Drink Question” – in words which must have mortified the temperance movement at the time he was quoted as saying:-

“In the course of a dietary lecture at Kelso, Dr J. Henderson Wright strongly condemned the excessive use of tea which was now so common in rural districts, and said it was to be deplored that milk and oatmeal had gone out of use.

Speaking on the drink question he said – The use of alcohol in excessive quantities is very bad; mingled with food it renders the nitrogenous parts of the food more difficult of digestion. It stimulates the heart too much, it over-excites the nerve centres, and is followed by a general depression and lowering of nerve-force.

If a man is doing hard work mentally or physically, or taking a long march, it has been thoroughly proved that he will do more work and do it better without any alcoholic stimulant whatever. But when a man is tired with over-fatigue, or if his nervous system is debilitated with over strain or with sickness, a moderate quantity of alcohol is beneficial in many cases. A moderate use of alcohol also prevents the waste of tissue in continued fatigue, and makes a smaller quantity of food necessary.

It cheers one when depressed, anxious and sorrowful, and makes life on the whole, more sociable, warmer and happier. Some people ought to be total abstainers from a health point of view. Others ought to be total abstainers from a moral point of view, or because they ought to be for the sake of example to some relative or dear friend who cannot resist the temptation.

But I do think temperance advocates, instead of asking men to be total abstainers, should rather further a society which insisted that all its members should conscientiously promise to be temperance men, and never exceed in the use of alcohol what would be considered a temperate quantity. The excessive use of tea in our country districts is causing more sickness and death than excessive use of alcohol.”

That Wright had continued with his militia service was confirmed by an insert in the “Volunteer Service Gazette” dated 4 January 1896 wherein under “Scottish District” mention was made of the award of the Volunteer Long Service Medal to 1st Roxburgh Mounted Volunteer Rifles Corps – No. 98 Corpl. J.H. Wright. This medal, thought to be unique to the unit that disbanded in 1892 after exactly 20 years in existence, was awarded after exactly 20 years of volunteer service. Wright, it seems, just made it before his unit ceased to exist.

From there he joined the ranks of the Lothians Yeoman – the Edinburgh Evening News of 28 August 1897 reporting that:-

“Lothians Yeoman as Sergeant Instructor – Sergeant J.H. Wright, Colville House, Kelso one of the most enthusiastic members of the Lothians and Berwickshire Yeomanry, has qualified for the position of assistant sergeant-instructor, and has received his certificate.”

But whereas things seemed to be going swimmingly for Wright on the militia front his finances were in a far sorrier state. The Edinburgh Gazette of 5 October 1900 reported:-

“Notice to Debtors and Creditors

John Henderson Wright, M.B., of Colville House, Kelso, having granted a Trust Deed for behoof of his Creditors in favour of Allan Stevenson, Agent of the Commercial Bank of Scotland, Kelso, all parties having claims against the said John Henderson Wright are requested to lodge the same, duly vouched, with the Trustee for fourteen days.”

Wright, for whatever reason, had fallen on hard times and it was probably just as well that a temporary solution to his problems was near at hand. The Anglo Boer War between the two Dutch-speaking Republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State had been raging since October 1899 with almost no end in sight. Despite the fall of both capitals the wily Boers had continued the fight albeit on a guerrilla war basis where small, highly mobile commandos would nip at the heels of the British juggernaut, fleeing with supplies, weapons and whatever else they could carry which would keep them in the field.

As has been seen Wright was already a keen and enthusiastic Yeoman and it was to the creation of Yeomanry battalions that the British High Command turned as a strategy to bring non-regulars into the war. Wright applied for and was appointed as the Medical Office to the 27th Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry – which consisted of the 123rd, 124th, 125th and 126th Companies under Lt. Colonel Wight- Boycott – with the rank of Captain. This was with effect from 14 January 1902 which meant that, unbeknown to anyone, the war would be over just over four months from the date he attested.

The Yeomanry in South Africa had a chequered record – the first draft – that which came out in early 1900 – were of the gentlemen class and of altogether a better stamp of man than that which was to follow in the subsequent second and third drafts. By this time the flower of the Clubs and the men of substance had seen duty and returned to England leaving behind raw recruits in the form of agricultural labourers and tradesmen.

Although there were exceptions most of these men were anything but combat-ready and were easy pickings for the mobile commandos earlier alluded to. As the Medical Officer Wright would have had his hands full tending to the sick, lame and wounded of the four companies under his watch. For his efforts he was awarded the Queens Medal with clasps Cape Colony and South Africa 1902 which was issued off the roll at Aldershot on 31 October 1902.

The London Times edition of Tuesday, 12 August 1902 under the shipping news section carried a report that “The “Simla” left for England on 29 July (1902) with the following invalids:

‘Imperial Yeomanry – Surgeon-Captain J.H. Wright’ – perhaps Wright had succumbed to one of the many illnesses prevalent among the men, perhaps he was overly fatigued? – It must be remembered that he was 47 years old at this point.

Safely back in Scotland he tried to put his financial ruin behind him although, and this is mere speculation, his circumstances do seem to have alienated him from his wife and children. The 1905 Medical Directory has him as a “Travelling” Surgeon with the P & O Line – in other words a Ships Doctor and far removed from his previous life where he had a practice of his own.

But where was his family? Despite intensive efforts I have been unable to locate them. The 1911 England census, whilst confirming that Wright was married, has him as a 56 year old Boarder resident at “The Old George Inn” in Fair Oaks, Eastleigh, London.

Perhaps tiring of a life which appeared to be going nowhere slowly Wright boarded the “Royal Edward” from Bristol, bound for Quebec and Montreal in Canada departing on 18 September 1912. He boarded alone as a second-class passenger with what could only have been a one-way ticket never to return to the land of his birth.

Appearing to have settled in British Columbia Wright took up the practice of medicine once more at a hospital there and, according to the Canada census of 1921 was living in a small settlement known as Alexis Creek along with a nurse by the name of Mary Mayer Good and a Patient by the name of Olive Mary Agnes Edis. A quick look at photographs of Alexis Creek today brings home the fact that it is, even now, a bleak, sparsely populated and isolated spot – what it would have looked like in the 1920’s is unknown but it appears to be the perfect place in which to “disappear” from the stresses and strains of life. Wright, at the age of 72, passed away in Vancouver on 1 June 1925.

The American Medical Journal gave his type of practice as “Allopath” – a practitioner of homeopathic medicine – how far he had strayed from the role of Surgeon he once performed. He had been practising as such since 25 August 1924.

As an epitaph to his story – his wife passed away in Edinburgh in 1932 – one can only wonder at what, if any, communication there was between them towards the end.