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Otto Garfield Wright CSM

CSM Otto Garfield Wright

Otto Garfield Wright was born 21 February 1896. He was the fourth son of James and Janet Wright, of “Willowbank,” Kaiapoi Island.
He was educated at the Coutts Island and Kaiapoi High Schools, and after leaving school was engaged in farming on his father’s farm at Kaiapoi.

 

Otto enlisted in the Canterbury Infantry Regiment, 2nd Battalion on the 27 June 1916 and after his training joined the 18th Reinforcements, Canterbury Infantry Battalion, C Company, New Zealand Expeditionary Force.
He sailed for England aboard the ‘Tofua’ on the 11 October 1916 and disembarked in England on the 28th December 1916.
In February 1917 he and his Battalion left for the war in France.
In October of that year he was promoted to Corporal and in March 1918 was again promoted, this time to the rank of Company Sergeant Major.

Wright headstone

In August 1918 he was seriously wounded in action and evacuated out of the field.

On the 1st September 1918, 29332 Company Sergeant Major Otto Wright died of his wounds.

He was buried in the Bagneux British Cemetery, Gezaincourt, Somme, France.

 


Life Lived in Sepia by Sandy Bain
I have always been fascinated by “what isn’t there”, not just what might be missing, but also what has never been there and why. It can, for me, open up new ways of looking and thinking about familiar or new events and objects and reveal information not readily apparent in the superficial acceptance of the obvious.
Before writing this poem I had looked at a photograph of my grandfather’s family, taken with a brother who, soon after, died in France in World War One, and realised he would not appear in any future family photographs, for a reason that would not be readily apparent to future generations unless they knew his story or could accurately date this photograph.
This image is how I think of Otto but he was of course, just one of many lost in their prime: not physically present, but much missed, and the faded sepia shadow behind future family photographs.
I wanted a sense of emptiness, loneliness and lost opportunities to pervade the atmosphere of the poem and the sense of loss to his parents and family to be the final emotion evoked for the reader.

To
CSM Otto Garfield Wright
Canterbury Regiment
New Zealand Expeditionary Force
Died Sunday September 1st 1918 aged 21
In France.

Life Lived In Sepia
The photograph doesn’t show Otto,
he was away in the war,
deep in France
a plaque, not a grave,
not a shadow
on a wall made of brick made of muck.
They wondered if farming had called him
not taking his horses to fight
but to plough up the ground of his forebears
was an act
far too brave
to be right.
His horse, his companion from childhood
gentle friend not abandoned to fear
horseman first,
bloodlines furrowed together
winnowed dust
cannon wind, whistled near…
You could see where he really should be
steps of boys, double stoop from the tallest
and parents caught frozen and silent
eighty years,
empty eyed,
empty pride.

Poem kindly used with permission of Sandy Bain

ANZAC HEROES

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