Profile

BRIGHT, Richard Henry
(Service number 7356)

Aliases	Enlisted as Richard BRIGHT
First Rank	Gunner	Last Rank	Gunner

Birth

Date	27/01/1881	Place of Birth	Timaru

Enlistment Information

Date	8 September 1915	Age	34 years 6 months
Address at Enlistment	Taumarunui, King Country, New Zealand
Occupation	Jeweller
Previous Military Experience	Kitchener's Light Horse, Boer War - one year
Marital Status	Single
Next of Kin	Thomas Linwood BRIGHT (brother), Box 494 G.P.O., Auckland
Religion	Church of England
Medical Information

Military Service

Served with	Australian Imperial Force	Served in	Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation	14th Battery
Unit, Squadron, or Ship	5th Field Artillery Brigade
Date	8 September 1915
Transport	Persic
Embarked From		Destination

Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With

Military Awards

Campaigns	Egyptian; Westerne European
Service Medals	1914-1915 Star; British War Medal; Victory Medal
Military Awards

Award Circumstances and Date

No information

Prisoner of War Information

Date of Capture
Where Captured and by Whom
Actions Prior to Capture
PoW Serial Number
PoW Camps
Days Interned
Liberation Date

Discharge

Date		Reason

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

Post-war Occupations

Jeweller

Death

Date	30 July 1948	Age	67 years
Place of Death	Wellington
Cause	Natural causes
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery	Karori Cemetery, Wellington
Memorial Reference	Soldiers Section. Plot 33 R/3
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

Richard Henry Bright was born on 27 January 1881 at Timaru and baptised on 27 March at St Mary’s Anglican Church, Timaru, the third son of William Robert Bright, a printer/compositor, and his wife, Elizabeth née O’Hara. The first-born Richard Bright was born in 1875 at Timaru and, dying there in 1879, was buried in the Timaru Cemetery, along with his infant sister Maude in 1880. Richard Henry Bright was educated variously at Phillipstown School, Christchurch, Christchurch East School, and Arthur Street School, Dunedin. Mrs Bright, who died in 1894 at the age of 42, and her husband, William Robert Bright, who died suddenly at his lodgings in Christchurch in September 1911, are buried in Avonside Cemetery, Christchurch. Richard Bright enlisted with the Australian Imperial Force on 8 September 1915 at Sydney, New SouthWales. He was 34 years 6 months old, a jeweller, and single. Richard named his younger brother, Mr Thomas Linwood Bright, Box 494, G.P.O., Auckland, New Zealand, as next-of-kin. He had served for one year with Kitchener’s Light Horse in the Boer War. Gunner Richard Bright returned to Australia from England on 27 April 1919. Richard married Daisy Melville in 1922 in New Zealand. He died on 30 July 1948 at Wellington, aged 67 years, and was buried in the Soldiers Section of Karori Cemetery, a services plaque marking his grave.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [30 March 2020]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [23 April 2020]; St Mary’s Timaru Baptism records (South Canterbury Branch NZSG) [16 April 2020]; School Admission records [23 April 2020]; Karori Cemetery headstone image & burial record (Wellington City Council) [22 April 2020]

External Links

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph record

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License unless otherwise stated.

Tell us more

Do you have information that could be added to this story? Or related images that you are happy to share? Submit them here!