William Wright

William Wright was born in March 1735 in Perthshire. After early schooling in Crieff, Wright was apprenticed to a local surgeon in Falkirk. In 1756, Wright attended medical lectures at Edinburgh University, but did not obtain a degree. In 1757, he sailed to Greenland as a ship's surgeon on a whaler. In January 1758, Wright presented himself for examination at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and was subsequently appointed surgeon's mate on a Royal Navy warship. Late in 1759 he was promoted to surgeon's first mate. He remained in service in the West Indies until the end of the Seven Years' War. Wright accepted the position of regimental surgeon to the Jamaican regiment, although he was captured and made a prisoner of war in Spain. Wright escaped and returned to England in 1780 before returning again to Jamaica, where he would stay from 1782 to 1785. Wright became physician to the army and director of military hospitals in Barbados from 1796 to 1798. Wright never married, but adopted his nephew whom he trained in the medical profession. He died in Edinburgh on 19 September 1819.

Biography: William Wright