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.  His name has now been added to those who fell, inscribed as M.L. Wright. [see below]

Early Education and Family Circumstances

Michael benefitted from the guidance of a private tutor, who provided support across three subjects in preparation for his Common Entrance Exam. Due to his hard work and determination, Michael achieved a first-class pass in all three subjects, a testament to his academic capability and commitment as and when he made the effort.

Challenges at Wrekin and Health Concerns

Despite his academic success, Michael was unable to complete his formal education. He developed a nervous complaint that necessitated a period in a sanatorium. After this experience, Michael was reluctant to return to school, marking an abrupt end to his time at Wrekin in 1935.

Family Circumstances and Impact

The instability of Michael’s home life likely contributed to these difficulties. By the time he began at Wrekin in 1933, his parents had divorced when he was just 11 years old. His father had entered into a second marriage, and the family was struggling financially. Michael’s mother gained formal custody and took on the responsibility of both parental roles. However, she found this challenging, and the resulting pressures affected Michael. These circumstances led him to become involved in troubles with the authorities on several occasions not long afterward.

First Steps into Working Life

After leaving school, Michael found employment in the motor trade as a salesman for a brief period. He also developed a keen interest in motor racing, during which he once received a 10-shilling parking ticket.

In July 1937, he began service with the Royal Air Force (RAF), leaving at his own request with the rank of Aircraftman 2nd Class after about a year. It was during this period that Michael had several encounters with the law following his misuse of motor cars.

The following newspaper reports of court proceedings at the time give some indication of his youthful mishaps.

The first of which was from The Sleaford Gazette & Journal, Friday March 25^th, 1938.

The newspaper report continued:-

1. £125 in 1938 would be the equivalent of £10,750 in 2025.

Whilst on remand in relation to the offences committed on Tuesday July 12^th, 1938, outlined above, Michael was also awaiting trial for the theft of fire extinguishers, details of which are in the next report.

The following report outlines the trial proceedings in relation to the breaking of the panes of glass at RAF Cranwell.

Emigration to Australia

Following another remarriage by his father, Michael made the decision to emigrate, to which end he had acquired the services of a Mr A. Robertson of the Provincial Immigration Co in Perth who were acting as his sponsor. This would need to have been arranged prior to his leaving the UK. In September 1938, he paid for a one-way tourist class ticket to Australia aboard the ‘RMS Strathmore’ bound for Brisbane. Notably, the previous voyage of this ship had brought the Australian cricket team, including the legendary Don Bradman, to England for the 1938 Ashes series.

Michael finally arrived in Fremantle, Western Australia, a short distance from Perth, the township of his above-named sponsor on 1^st November 1938, after various stops en route. A couple of months later however Michael once again had a brush with authority, whom he found not to be quite so accommodating of his misdeeds as their British brethren.

The following two extracts from The South Australian Police Gazette detail his brush with the law.

Upon release Michael travelled across the Australian continent finally ending up working for a period on a stud farm in Queensland.

Enlistment in the RAAF

It was in July 1940 that Michael decided upon a change of name, adopting the ‘Glenton’ from one of his father’s names, henceforth being known as M.L. Glenton-Wright. At Wrekin, he had gone by the name M.L. Wright. It was under this new name that he enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) at the Bundaberg recruiting centre on the Queensland coast. Michael also altered his date of birth from December 1919 to December 1915 and amended his examination record to match, possibly to avoid the need for parental or guardian consent to enlist. Since he did not produce his UK birth certificate, he was required to make a statutory declaration under the Australian Oaths Act 1867, which was certified by a Justice of the Peace. [Throughout his life, Michael would adjust his stated age to suit different circumstances].

Training and Tragedy in Canada

On 23^rd January 1941, Michael and several other airmen departed Australia for Canada to undertake further training with the Royal Canadian Air Force and once again motor cars were to play a part, this time with tragic consequences. During his time in Canada, he was involved in a fatal traffic accident and spent several weeks in hospital. The accident in question occurred at about 03:00 hrs on 7^th July 1941 at Lockport, Manitoba. A rented car, driven by a fellow airman and carrying three other RAAF/RCAF personnel including Michael, as well as a civilian Ford Motor Company employee, crashed while crossing a bridge, overturning onto the embankment. The driver and the civilian died instantly; another passenger later died in hospital from his injuries, and a further airman was medically discharged several months later due to a skull fracture. Michael, though injured, was the only one to walk away from the incident but nevertheless was hospitalised for several weeks.

Return to England and RAAF Service

Michael left Canada and sailed to England, arriving on 14th November 1941. By this time, he had qualified as a Wireless Operator/Air Gunner. In early 1942, while attending an airborne wireless operators’ course at RAF Yatesbury, Michael was reprimanded for failing to comply with an order and for being absent without leave for 90 minutes.

Operational Training and Final Mission

In the spring of 1942, Michael was assigned to No 23 Operational Training Unit based at RAF Pershore, which was part of No 6 Group, Bomber Command. There, he flew Wellington Bombers in a night-fighting role.

On the evening of 30^th May 1942 at 23:12 hrs, Michael was part of the crew aboard Wellington Mk Ic [N2851], piloted by Sergeant WRC Johnston, which took off on a mission to Cologne. At approximately 01:41 hrs, the aircraft was shot down by a German night fighter, piloted by Stabsfeldwebel Gerhard Herzog, and crashed near s’Gravendeel, Holland. All five crew members 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, including Michael, were reported as “missing presumed dead”. Due to the severity of the explosion, it proved 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.

Michael was clearly a very talented self-taught graphic artist, as evidenced by a selection of his drawings which appear in the gallery below.  Before he left Canada in 1941 he donated these, and others in his portfolio to his RCAF flying instructor, passing down by descent through the family

===

And what of George Adrian Foss, charged with aiding and abetting Michael back in April 1938.  He continued to serve within the RAF throughout the war and in 1951 whilst serving as a Flight Lieutenant was awarded the M.B.E.(mil) for distinguished service in Malaya for the period 1949-51. He is believed to have died in 1994.

John George Ward, one of the youths in a mask, smashing the window panes of the Sergeants mess at RAF Cranwell also remained in service as a wireless operator serving with 226 Squadron, flying Fairey Battle light bombers out of Reims – Champagne Air Base in France prior to the fall of France in 1940.

Tasked to bomb German troop convoys as they advanced south-west of Luxemburg they located a column of 30 to 40 vehicles. The aircraft [K-9183] made several dive-bombing attacks in the face of heavy defensive fire when it was hit by flak and machine gunfire while they were flying at low level in the vicinity of the target. The aircraft was set on fire but the pilot crash-landed the aircraft although very badly wounded. After they had landed, they were surrounded by Germans but Ward told them that there were bombs in the aircraft, thus keeping their captors at bay.

When the aircraft, and all its on-board documentation, secret papers etc, had been destroyed, he then informed the Germans that it was safe to approach. Sadly, the pilot later died in hospital and Ward and Sgt Hart the navigator, were taken prisoner.

Ward was captured and held as a prisoner of war. He was at Stalag Luft I near Barth, Western Pomerania in December 1940 before being moved to an unnamed labour camp in Upper Silesia in January 1941. At the end of March 1941, he was sent to a labour camp near Lissa in Poland from which he escaped, but was recaptured. He escaped again from Gostyn on 20th April 1941 and joined the Polish resistance.

He then became a clandestine journalist in occupied Poland. He founded and edited a Polish underground newspaper, was an ad-hoc war correspondent for The Times, translated transcripts of BBC broadcasts into Polish for the Home Army, built radio transceivers, and trained Home Army radio operators. In 1944 he served with the Home Army in the Warsaw Uprising, in which he was wounded in combat against German forces. He finally made it to the Russian lines after the Warsaw Uprising and sailed home from Odessa on 14th March 1945.  Ward finally resumed his RAF career, and was commissioned as an officer.

For his continued bravery serving with the Polish Home Army, Ward was awarded the Military Cross [MC] by King George VI and the Krzyż Walecznych ("Cross of Valour") by the Poles. He died in England in 1995.

A copy of this story is available for download here.

Revised: November 2025