John Wright
Memorial: Thornbury & District Museum: 6th Maritime Regiment Memorial
Regiment: 6th Maritime Regiment
Medals: 1939–45 Star, War Medal 1939–1945
Rank and number: Lance Bombardier
Parents: Nicholas and Alice Wright
Home address: 2 North View, Fylde, Lancashire
Pre-war occupation: Post Office Civil Servant
Date of birth: 29/04/1919
Place of birth: Lancashire
Date of death: 13/04/1942
Buried/Commemorated at: Died at sea and commemorated on Chatham Naval Memorial and the Maritime Memorial Thornbury
Age: 22
Further information:
John was born and raised Lancashire and was the son of a forester.
On the day of his death, John was serving aboard the unescorted British Steam Tanker the Empire Amethyst, on route from New Orleans to Freetown Sierra Leone, carrying a cargo of 12,000 tons of motor spirit. At 05.52 hours on 13 April 1942, the Amethyst was hit by 2 torpedoes from U-boat U-154, who had been chasing the vessel, which had been steering a zig zag course at 11 knots, for 16 hours. The tanker immediately caught fire from stem to stern and broke in two after an explosion. It sank within 15 minutes, about 150 miles north-northeast of Aruba, leaving a large oil slick that burnt for 2 hours. The master, 40 crew members and six gunners, including John were lost. There were no survivors. John was originally reported as missing which was changed to killed in action 6 months later.
John died on 13th April 1942 (not 23/5/42 as on Memorial).
By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):
This information has been provided by Sarah Hands, Volunteer Researcher for the South Gloucestershire War Memorials Web Site.
By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):
https://www.cwgc.org/
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/
https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/
https://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ship/1534.html