Frederick Joshua Bright was born on 20 November 1892 in Haggerston, London, one of the nine children of Edward Charles Bright (1860-1936) and Alice Sarah Bright née Slater (1861-1948).
He was baptised at St Mary’s Church, Haggerston, on 18 December 1892 where the baptismal register shows that the family were living at 8 Weymouth Terrace, Haggerston and that his father was an oil & colour man. His birth was registered in the 1st quarter of 1893 in the Shoreditch registration district, London.
In the 1901 census he is shown as living in the Oilshop, 1 Denmark Road, Islington, London, with his parents and five siblings: Alice Priscilla Bright (1882-1955), Emma Mary Ann Bright (1881-1961), Edith Elizabeth Bright (1889-1948), Florence Emily Bright (1891-1963) and Minnie Eliza Bright (1895-1940). His father was described as an oilman shopkeeper. (Denmark Road was subsequently renamed and is now called Dewey Road).
UK Postal Service Appointment Books show that in June 1910 he was appointed as an Assistant Postman and in the 1911 census he was described as GPO telegraph messenger living in a four roomed property at 221 Hornsey Road, Holloway, together with his parents and four siblings: Emma who was shown as milliner, Edith as a book folder, Florence as a blouse maker and 15-years-old Minnie who had no occupation. His father listed himself as a 'coachman commercial drapery' and the census return form also shows that his mother had given birth to nine children of which only six were still alive.
In January 1913 he was promoted to the grade of Postman in London’s Western District Office and in February 1916 he enlisted as a Rifleman in the 2nd/8th (City of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (Post Office Rifles), service number 5272. On 1 January 1917 his service number was changed to 372616 and he entered France on 4 February 1917. He was promoted to Lance Corporal and was serving in his battalion's 'A' Company when he died of wounds, aged 25 years, on 25 July 1918 in No.4 Casualty Clearing Station in Pernois, France. He was buried in Plot 3, Row A, Grave 9 in the Pernois British Cemetery, Halloy-Les-Penois, Picardie, France.
On 11 October 1918 his army effects totalling £6-12s-2d were sent to his father. Probate records confirm that his home address had been 38 Braemar Road, Tottenham and that when administration of his estate was granted to his father, who was described as a caretaker, his effects totalled £171-7s-10d. His father was also sent his £11-0s-0d war gratuity on 27 March 1920. He was posthumously awarded the British War Medal 1914-1918 and the Victory Medal.
He is commemorated as Bright, F. J. on the Western Postal District war memorial now located in Mount Pleasant, London, EC1, on Page 45 of The Post Office Fellowship of Remembrance's Book of Remembrance 1914-1920, on the Commonwealth War Grave Commission's website and on the Imperial War Museum's Lives of the First World War website.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
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