Richard Wright - UPDATE

Merry, can I just say thank you for writing all this up for me - you are making a much better job of it than I could. Thank you so much.
In the 3rd paragraph of this last piece (Article 3) I would point out that the brother Robert was my grandfather. This is the article I have found the most disturbing - the mental illness in the family that I wasn't aware of.

I got to message 100 and then it kept repeating itself - dont do this to me, Im biting my nails in anticipation of what happened next

Edit - well at least I'm on the last page now, I'll work my way back. Sorry I stuffed up lol

[Merry]

I'm going to go back and take out a lot of the chat posts - that might help a bit....

[Margaret in Burton]

Originally Posted by Stella

Merry, can I just say thank you for writing all this up for me - you are making a much better job of it than I could. Thank you so much.
In the 3rd paragraph of this last piece (Article 3) I would point out that the brother Robert was my grandfather. This is the article I have found the most disturbing - the mental illness in the family that I wasn't aware of.

Stella

Mental illness could be anything. They used to put people in an asylum for things you would get antidepressants for these days. Unmarried pregnant girls could also find themselves in one.

[Olde Crone]

I was about to say exactly the same as Margaret - mental illness was not understood in the 1920s and could really have been anything, INLCLUDING a physical illness which could be very easily treated these days.

I was horrified to see on another forum that someone's grandmother was admitted to a mental hospital suffering from post natal depression after losing a baby. She remained there for 49 years - that is NOT post natal depression, or if it was, she souldn't have been in there.

OC

Thanks OC and Marg. I do realise that, but it still came as a bit of a shock when I read it. Silly of me really.

[Joan of Archives]

Stella it was interesting to read the fact he was involved in an incident in WWI that could have profoundly affected him mentally. Shellshock was a terrible thing so no wonder he was so unbalanced at the time of the killings, not that it makes it right, but at least you know the background now.

My grandmother's youngest brother joined up at 17 & served in the Dardenelles; he was only a boy & when he returned he was never the same again. In his early 30's he left his wife & children after his youngest daughter died suddenly & he disappeared, never to be seen again, so I think his child's death was the last straw that finally broke him.

Yes Joan, and I am also wondering if the brother who died in a mental ward in 1919 was also suffering from shell shock as he was most likely serving in the 1st world war in 1919 and they were a military family.

[Joan of Archives]

Well there you go Stella, have you looked for a service record on Ancestry for the other brother at all? Unfortunately most of my family seem to be the unlucky ones that were destroyed by fire

[Olde Crone]

A while ago, I was reading a book about true murders and realsied with a huge shock that the murderer was a friend of my grandfather - they went to the same school, were in the same cricket club etc and in the same army regiment.

This man shot his fiancee for no known reason. He left his gloves and hat neatly in a pile by her body. He was of course rapidly arrested and seemed amused if anything, certainly not concerned.

His father said that he had returned from WW1 in a terrible state and had in fact locked himself in his room for five weeks, refusing to come out. Eventually he emrged as if nothing had happened and commenced the life of a playboy.

This might be a bit of pop psychology too far, lol, but I did wonder if his actions were a twisted kind of suicide?

OC