Samuel was the second son of John Cartwright of number 16, Cross Street in Dudley; according to the 1911 Census, as a young man, he was employed as a "brass caster." 

Thought to have volunteered in October 1915, he was killed in action on or about the 21st of March 1918, aged 37.

Samuel is buried in the Chapelle British Cemetery, located outside the village of Holnon, to the west of St. Quentin. The personal inscription on Samuel's headstone reads:

“He was too good in life to be forgotten in death, R.I.P.”

Originally going to France with the 2nd/7th Worcesters, that battalion was disbanded in February 1918 as part of the re-organisation of the British Expeditionary Force, necessitated by the manpower shortage, and the men distributed between the 2nd/8th and 10th battalions; Samuel was re-assigned to the 2nd/8th Worcesters.

Samuel's 2nd/8th Worcesters were caught on the periphery of the first great German Spring Offensive of 1918, which opened on the 21st of March, and steadily had to withdraw from position to position over the next ten days until matters stabilised. 

Samuel was originally buried by the Germans in a collective grave in the countryside to the north-east of Manchester Hill. 

Chapelle British Cemetery was begun after the Armistice to concentrate all the battlefield burials around St. Quentin, and Pte Cartwright’s body was re-interred here by No. 34 Graves Registration Squad in August 1919; his remains being identified by his identity disk. 

The location of Samuel's original grave is now underneath the A26/A29 interchange.

A bachelor, Samuel's name is inscribed on the walls of Dudley's Civic War Memorial in Priory Street. 

(This story is based on his entry in the book “Dudley’s 1914-1918 War Memorial and the Men commemorated – 2nd Revised & Expanded Edition” by J. B. E. Hale. The book is published by Amazon; a Kindle version is also available)                                                                (Header image: Chappelle British Cemetery,  © Johan Pauwels)