Wight, EO
(1858 - 1915)
Key Facts
DATE OF BIRTH:
29th May 1858
YEARS ATTENDED THE COLLEGE:
1873 - 1874
HOME ADDRESS WHEN AT THE COLLEGE:
Shinfield, Reading
REGIMENT
Royal Army Medical Corps
FINAL RANK:
Colonel
DATE OF DEATH:
19th December 1915
AGE AT DEATH:
57
WHERE HE DIED (or was wounded)
France
LOCATION OF GRAVE OR MEMORIAL:
Ferme-Olivier Cemetery. Plot 2. Row J. Grave 4.
Colonel Ernest Octavius Wight
Photo courtesy of the Imperial War Musuem, © IWM (HU 127467)
Born 29th May 1858, Ernest was the son of the famed botanist Dr Robert Wight and Mrs Rosa Wight. Upon leaving the college he qualified as a Member of the Royal College of Physicians in 1881 and joined the Medical Services on 4th February 1882 at the rank of Surgeon Captain and saw service in the Lushai Expedition, Burma, in 1892 – receiving a medal for saving a drowning man’s life. During this time, on 4th Feb 1894, he was promoted to Major and later, on the 4th February 1902, Ernest gained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, before retiring in 1907. On the formation of the territorial force in 1908 however, he accepted the post of Deputy Assistant Director of Medical Services of the Home Counties Division at Hounslow, and was still employed in this capacity when war broke out.
In April 1915 he was ordered abroad, in order to serve as a doctor on the Western Front. On December 19th of that year he was on the banks of the Yser Canal near Ypres, attempting to extricate some of his division’s motor ambulances from a dangerous position, when he was killed by a shell; being buried in the Ferme-Olivier Cemetery. He left a widow, Janet Wight.