BRIGHT, Francis Edmund. Lieutenant (197289)
5th Battalion Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders
Died 17 July 1943, aged 28

Son of Francis Joseph and Elsie Bright, of Worcester Park, Surrey. M.A. (Cantab.).
Francis was born on 23 February 1915 in Wandsworth, the second of six children born to Francis Joseph Bright and Elsie (nnée Tompkins - they had married in Luton, Bedfordshire, on 28 August 1912. The 1939 Register records the parents living at 43 Kenton Avenue Worcester Park. Francis senior is listed as "Buyer - Constructional Engineer" and Elsie with the conventional "Unpaid Domestic Duties". Living with them is their only daughter, 25 year old Doris ("Shorthand Typist").
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission credits Francis junior with an MA degree from Cambridge University, and the 1939 Register records this 24 year old as an "Assistant Master In Secondary School" living/lodging at 19 Pines Avenue, Worthing. (His hosts, Elizabeth and Mabel Humphries are both listed as retired teachers.)
The readily available records do not indicate when Francis joined the 5th Battalion Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders. If this was relatively early in WW2, he would have seen action in the Second Battle of El Alamein in October 1942. The Battalion's next major action was in "Operation Husky" the Allies' invasion of Sicily which began on the night of 9/10 July 1943.
Francis was one of the many, on both sides, killed in action during the fierce fighting that led to the Allies finally taking Sicily on 17 August - a result that led to the surrender of Italian forces and a key turning point in the war in Europe. He is one of the 2,135 Commonwealth burials in the Catania War Cemetery, Sicily.His parents took the opportunity of adding a personal inscription to his headstone, "No fame or glory craved/ His life was modest / That life he gave / Ever in our thoughts."

, 2018-03-19

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