Michael was absent from the Wrekin Roll of Honour for the war until his discovery in 2019 as a result of enquiries by a Dutch national researching missing crew members of an RAF aircraft that crashed near his home in the Netherlands in 1942. 

For a period of time Michael had a private tutor to assist him in three subjects in preparation for his Common Entrance Exam to Wrekin, and in these three he achieved a first-class pass. Failure to complete a formal education is probably down to his chaotic home life, as by the time Michael started Wrekin his father had just re-married for the second time and money was tight.

On leaving school he was employed in the motor trade as a salesman and was also a keen motor racing enthusiast during which time he received a 10-shilling parking ticket. Michael also claimed to have spent 10 months in the RAF, commencing July 1937 before leaving at his own request in the rank of Aircraftman 2nd Class, but it has not been possible to verify this information.

After his father had re-married yet again Michael emigrated to Australia in September 1938 aboard the ‘RMS Strathmore’ bound for Brisbane: the previous voyage of the ship had brought the Australian cricket team, including Don Bradman, to England for the 1938 Ashes series. For a short period he worked on a stud farm before enlisting in the RAAF in July 1940 at the Bundaberg recruiting centre, on the Queensland coast under the name of M L Glenton-Wright. The name ‘Glenton’ having been one of his father’s names: at Wrekin he went under the name of M.L.Wright.  Michael also altered his date of birth from Dec 1919 to Dec 1915 and his examination record for this purpose. One possible reason for this alteration to his birth date could be to ensure that a parent or guardian’s authority to enlist would not be sought. He was taking a big risk in that without production of his UK birth certificate he was required to make a statutory declaration under the Australian Oaths Act 1867 certified by a JP. During his short life he would vary his age depending upon circumstance.

On 23^rd January 1941 Michael and several other airmen left Australia for Canada where they undertook a period of training with the Royal Canadian Airforce, and his ID card is pictured here. Whilst in Canada he was involved in a fatal traffic accident and was hospitalised for several weeks.

On 7^th July 1941 at about 03:00 hrs at Lockport, Manitoba, a rented car being driven by a fellow airman, plus three other RAAF/RCAF personnel, including Michael, together with a civilian employee of the Ford Motor Company crashed. The vehicle was crossing a bridge when it jumped the rail and landed upside down on the embankment. The driver and the civilian were killed instantly and one of the other passengers died from his injuries later that day in hospital, another being medically discharged from the RAAF a few months later due to a skull fracture sustained in the accident: Michael, although injured, was the only one to walk away.

He subsequently left Canada and sailed to England arriving on the 14^th November 1941 having qualified as a Wireless Operator/Air Gunner. In early 1942 whilst attending an airborne wireless operators’ course at RAF Yatesbury, he was reprimanded for failing to comply with an order and being AWOL for 90 minutes.

In the Spring of 1942, Michael was with No 23 Operational Training Unit based at RAF Pershore, part of No 6 Group, Bomber Command, flying Wellington Bombers in the night-fighting role.

On the evening of 30^th May 1942 at 23:12 hrs Wellington Mk Ic [N2851], with a crew of five, took off on a mission to Cologne piloted by Sgt WRC Johnston. At approximately 01:41 hrs on Sunday 31^st May 1942 the aircraft was shot down by a German night fighter, piloted by Stabsfeldwebel Gerhard Herzog, crashing in the vicinity of s’Gravendeel, Holland. All on board were lost; the remains of Sergeant William Ross Campbell Johnston, RCAF and Sergeant Ronald Arthur Broodbank, RAAF were interred at Crosswijk Cemetery, Rotterdam. Initially, the other three crew members were officially reported as “missing presumed dead”. The severity of the explosion in the crash was such that it was found impossible to recover their remains and in 1948 it was officially recorded that they had no known grave.

Michael who was 22 when he died is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial, Englefield Green, Surrey together with fellow ‘missing’ crew Sergeant James Donn-Patterson, RAAF and Sergeant George Frederick Bolton, RAAF.

Son of Mr Cyril Carne Glenton Wright of Hampstead, London & Mrs Eileen Theresa Glenton-Wright of Dulverton, Somerset.

A copy of this story is available for download here.

See also the Commonwealth War Graves Commission permanent digital memorial, ‘Evermore: Stories of the fallen’ relating to:- Sergeant Michael Lotherington GLENTON-WRIGHT