Ray Wright - 1942

Private Raymond Harry Wright

AIF Service Number NX92796
World War II: Pacific Theatre

Enlisted: 17 March 1942

Discharged: 14 December 1945

My Dad is so handsome here in his Australian Army uniform. His cheery, carefree smile betrays no indication that he is headed off to war in the Pacific, leaving a young wife at home with three small children aged 9, 5 and 2. Like many young men of his generation, Dad never spoke about his experiences during the war. And he was not one to attend army reunions or march on Anzac Day. After returning from the war, he seemed to want to put that entire part of his life completely behind him. On a personal note, I am very grateful he returned safely, because less than 4 years later I was born.  

Raymond Harry Wright - 1920s

Raymond Harry Wright

1920s

My father, Raymond Harry (Ray) Wright, was born at the Royal Hospital for Women in Paddington, Sydney, Australia, on 24 November 1907.  He once told me that he was named after his place of birth, in that the Royal Hospital for Women was at that time widely  referred to simply as "RHW".  Dad  told me that this was primarily because the initials "RHW" were emblazoned in large letters high-up on the side of the hospital building and that when his mother saw them, she decided to name her son with the same initials. Dad was raised on a rural property at Jack's Creek near the town of Willow Tree, on the fertile black-soil Liverpool Plains of the upper Hunter Valley of New South Wales. Dad’s family relocated to Narrabeen on Sydney’s Northern Beaches in the 1920s.