Wright, Hamilton (Hamilton Kemp), 1867-1917

Hamilton Kemp Wright (1867-1917), physician and medical scientist, worked as a pathologist and as director of the British Institute of Medical Research in Kuala Lampur in Federated Malay States in the early 1900s. He was appointed opium commissioner by the State Department in 1908. As commissioner, he oversaw the State Department's preparation for the International Opium Commission meeting. After the meeting Wright took up the battle for an international meeting that could frame a treaty and played a leading role in the preparation of domestic anti-narcotic legislation. He volunteered to help the wounded on the western front during World War I, and was injured there in an automobile accident. He died on January 9, 1917, in Washington, D.C.