| Regimental number | 2860 |
| Place of birth | Fremantle, Western Australia |
| School | Christian Brothers School, Fremantle, Western Australia |
| Religion | Methodist |
| Occupation | Hardware assistant |
| Age at embarkation | 30 |
| Height | 5' 9" |
| Weight | 173 lbs |
| Next of kin | Mother, Mrs Dulcie Rhoda Wrightson, c/o Mrs Chadwick, 17 Wood Street, South Fremantle, Western Australia |
| Previous military service | Nil |
| Place of enlistment | Perth, Western Australia |
| Rank on enlistment | Private |
| Unit name | 48th Battalion, 7th Reinforcement |
| Embarkation details | Unit embarked from Fremantle, Western Australia, on board HMAT A8 Argyllshire on |
| Rank from Nominal Roll | Private |
| Unit from Nominal Roll | 48th Battalion |
| Fate | Killed in Action |
| Age at death from cemetery records | 32 |
| Place of burial | No known grave |
| Commemoration details | The Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium The Menin Gate Memorial (so named because the road led to the town of Menin) was constructed on the site of a gateway in the eastern walls of the old Flemish town of Ypres, Belgium, where hundreds of thousands of allied troops passed on their way to the front, the Ypres salient, the site from April 1915 to the end of the war of some of the fiercest fighting of the war. The Memorial was conceived as a monument to the 350,000 men of the British Empire who fought in the campaign. Inside the arch, on tablets of Portland stone, are inscribed the names of 56,000 men, including 6,178 Australians, who served in the Ypres campaign and who have no known grave. The opening of the Menin Gate Memorial on 24 July 1927 so moved the Australian artist Will Longstaff that he painted 'The Menin Gate at Midnight', which portrays a ghostly army of the dead marching past the Menin Gate. The painting now hangs in the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, at the entrance of which are two medieval stone lions presented to the Memorial by the City of Ypres in 1936. Since the 1930s, with the brief interval of the German occupation in the Second World War, the City of Ypres has conducted a ceremony at the Memorial at dusk each evening to commemorate those who died in the Ypres campaign. |
| Panel number, Roll of Honour, Australian War Memorial | 147 |
| Miscellaneous information from cemetery records | Commemorated in Fremantle Cemetery, Western Australia. |
| Family/military connections | Brother: 2853 Pte Roy James WRIGHTSON, 11th Bn, killed in action, 30 May 1916. |
| Other details | Statement, Red Cross File, 1867 Lance Corporal W.H. SHAW, 48th Bn (patient, 3rd Auxiliary Hospital, Dartford), 22 July 1918: 'Lieut Clark ... who was at the time acting R.S.M. and was in France when I left on June 16th 1918, was with them [WRIGHTSON and 3104 W.W. BRITTAIN] when they were killed outright with about 8 other men by a big H.E. shell, during the attack at Passchendaele, just outside Battn Hqrs at about 10 a.m. on Oct 12th 1917. Our O.C. Col Lean (now Brig. Gen) was wounded by the shell ... Wrightson was also a big well built dark man. The only Wrightson in the battalion. They were both Sgt and Musketry instructors at Codford Camp.' |
| Miscellaneous details | Name does not appear on Embarkation Roll. |
| Sources | NAA: B2455, WRIGHTSON Arthur Harry
Red Cross File 3030513F |
Postal Address:
Po Box 7916
Canberra BC 2610, Australia
Street Address:
Northcott Drive,
Campbell, ACT 2600
