Annie Bella Wright

The Grave of Bella Wright (Grave No. D35)
In Stoughton Churchyard

Annie Bella Wright was born in 1897, in Somerby, (probably Newbold) and was the oldest of seven children of Keennes (or Kenus) Emblin Wright (born in Egleton) and Mary Ann Beaver (born in Newbold). The marriage took place in the Spring of 1897. He was an agrecultural labourer and in 1901 lived in Newbold, Owston, Leicestershire. Bella grew up in a thatched cottage four miles outside Leicester in Stoughton, under what Bill Donahue describes as "essentially feudal conditions". She attended school until the age of 12, then worked as a domestic servant before taking a factory job in Bates, about five miles from home.

At the time of her death she had been "keeping company" with Royal Navy stoker Archie Ward, and had at least one other suitor.

Bella Wright and Ronald Light met on a road 5 July 1919 around 6:45 p.m. She asked him if he had a spanner to help with her loose freewheel. He did not have one, but offered to accompany her, which she accepted. He accompanied her to her uncle George Measure's cottage in Gaulby and waited for her outside; the uncle didn't like his looks. They rode away together at about 8:50 p.m. Her dead body was found on the Via Devana by a farmer, around 9:20 p.m.

Bella Wright may have met Ronald Light prior to the night of the murder. She had told her mother of an officer who had fallen in love with her; it may well have been Light, although he denied it in court.

Bella's little gravestone