Today We Remember

Clement WRIGHTON
Service no. 15241

Private, 7th Battalion,
The Northamptonshire Regiment

Family Background

Clement was the youngest son, one of 10 children, born to Frederick and Mary Ann Wrighton of Aynho.  In the 1901 census the family lived in a cottage on Back Road which is now the first part of Butts Close. Frederick was a railway plate layer. He was also one of Aynho’s first parish councilors after it was formed in 1894.

Clement is listed as a porter, following the family tradition of working on the railways, in the 1911 census; as a porter he probably lived at the station when he left home.

One of his cousins (once removed), Charles Wrighton, became Station Master at Aynho Station at some point.

Clement joined the same battalion as Albert Wrighton, his older brother by 13 years who was killed two days before at the same battle.

Clement has surviving relations still living in the village – one first cousin twice removed (Stewart Brown) and one second cousin twice removed (June Alsford).

He has no known grave but his name appears on Pier and Face 11A and 11D of the Thiepval Memorial. Like his brother he is listed on his parents’ headstone in the churchyard. Their mother died a few months after them, later in February 1917, whilst their father lived until he was 94, dying in 1936.