World War 1
Search the known records to date of those lost from the wider Alnwick area in World War 1
Generally showing where they are commemorated, when they died and some basic facts about each person. There are gaps, however, so if you can fill in any missing details do please contact us.
Matthew Brown Wight
Forename(s):
Matthew Brown
Surname:
Wight
Initial(s):
M B
Service Number:
114594
Rank:
Private
Regiment:
Machine Gun Corps (Infantry), 6th Depot Company
Died:
04/11/1917
Aged:
26
Buried:
Etaples Military Cemetery
Service History:
Enlisted at Wooler, Northumberland.
Formerly 26422, Durham Light Infantry.
Wight's date of enlistment, the length of time he spent with the DLI & whether he went overseas with that regiment, if so in which battalion, is not known.
Wight transferred, willingly or otherwise, into the Machine Gun Corps in late 1917 - it is from his new MGC service number that David Richardson has estimated the date of transfer. He will have gone to the Machine Gun Training Centre at Belton Park Camp, Grantham in Lincolnshire where men were taught the various skills of handling the Vickers machine gun, signalling, bombing, cooking, etc.
From there men were sent by rail to the south coast & crossed to France. Most landed at le Havre or Boulogne before arriving at the Machine Gun Corps Base Depot at Camiers. Most new arrivals spent less than three weeks at the Depot.
Wight is recorded as being a member of No. 6 Depot Company, possibly one of the holding / transit companies at the MGC Base. This would suggest that Wight, either, was on the permanent staff of the Base, or he had just arrived from England & was waiting to be drafted to a MG Company.
Wight, aged 26 years, died of pneumonia & is buried at Etaples.
At that time, the following hospitals were at Etaples: No. 24 General Hospital; No. 26 General Hospital; No. 6 British Red Cross Station (the Liverpool Merchant's Hospital); No. 46 Stationary Hospital (an isolation hospital); & No. 56 General Hospital (the Southern Hospital). There were also five hospitals at Camiers.
(Source: David Richardson; Great nephew; November 2017)
Background:
Born about 1892 at Duddo, Norham, Northumberland, the son of Margaret Wight, of Low Angerton, Morpeth, Northumberland, & the late James Wight.
Resident at Branxton Moor, Cornhill-on-Tweed, Northumberland.
Pre-enlistment occupation: Farmer working on the family farm.
Local Memorial:
Branxton War Memorial, Branxton Kirk
