On the 6th October 1917, 100 years ago my Great Uncle Solomon
Charles Wraight enlisted in the United States Army.
Solomon had been born in Lambeth, Surrey on the 22nd
May 1895, the eldest child of Solomon and Alice Wraight (nee Uden). The family, originally from Kent moved to Wandsworth, Surrey in 1894/95 and by 1911 the
Wraight family were living in Battersea, Middlesex with both Solomon and his father
working as carpenters / joiners.
In August 1915, Solomon emigrated to the USA, and found employment as a carpenter in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, eventually becoming a naturalised American citizen
in May 1917. His younger brother William, also a carpenter by trade, had joined
the Royal Navy Air Service in March
1917.
America had declared war on Germany on the 6th
April 1917 and had immediately set about the task of training it’s men to face
the harsh realities of the battle fields on the Western Front.
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| Solomon Charles Wraight USA Army - Camp Meade 1917 |
Solomon enlisted in the 315th Infantry regiment
was based at Camp Meade, Maryland. He had been living at 150 North – 12th
Street, Philadelphia. The first recruits for the regiment had starting arriving on the 21st
September and by the 15th October the regiment had a full strength
of 2,731 men, all from the Philadelphia area. The Regiment adopting the name
by which it has always been known “Philadelphia’s Own”. All new recruits were
lined up and were integrated as to their history, each experienced a shot in
the arm and the rigours of an army medical exam (Source: The Official History
of the 315 Regiment USA).
Much of the early weeks involved building Camp Meade,
clearing land, erecting barracks etc. as well as rifle practice and drilling.
Solomon was part of the machine gun company, which as the
official history of the regiment explains was selected in the following way.
“The machine Gun
Company, better known as the Suicide Club, was formed in the dark and stormy
days of September 1917, just like any other company in the regiment i.e. by
marching a bunch of cheerful young nuts holding the lucky (?) numbers in Uncle
Sam’s lottery into a big, bare, pine barracks. After the usual inspections, the
boys were given a hat and shirt. Then each one was asked which branch of the
service he preferred. If he were a mechanic, that was just exactly what the
machine gun company needed. The same thing applied to bartenders, hotel clerks,
milk men and chauffeurs (on account of their knowledge of mules) etc.”
One can only assume the same suitability applied in
Solomon’s case to carpenters!
The Official History continues –
“The company trained for quite a while as a rifle company, but after
some time they received Colt machine guns and wooden models of the Vickers, and
the company had very strenuous drill in the art of quick mounting and
dismounting of the gun, replacing casualties in the gun team, camouflaging gun positions
and so forth. Finally, these make shift guns were all turned in and we received
the Browning machine guns, which eventually the company would use in France.”
Solomon's journey during the Great War years had taken him from Battersea across the Atlantic Ocean to a new life in America and now as a naturalised US citizen he joined the Army which in all probability would likely take him back to Europe.
Sources : The Official History of the 315 Regiment USA.
