Wright, John Wilfred

John Wilfred Wright was born on 21 May 1914. He was educated at Lancing College and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read mathematics and geography. In 1934, he led the Cambridge University Expedition to Iceland, organized to map a small glacier-dammed lake at the edge of the ice cap in southwest Iceland and to make soundings. The following year, he returned north on the Oxford University Arctic Expedition, 1935-1936 (leader Alexander Glen), during which he conducted a survey of parts of Nordaustlandet. He next participated in the British Arctic Expedition, 1937-1938 (leader David Haig-Thomas), conducting a topographic survey of the southeast coast of Ellesmere Island with Richard Hamilton. On his return from the Arctic, he joined the Sudan Survey, later serving with the Sudan Defence Force and the British Army during the Second World War. After the war, he resumed work with the Sudan Survey until 1956, later serving as chief surveyor with Hunting Aerosurveys in the Middle East. Returning to England to work for the Directorate of Overseas Surveys at Telworth, he later became its deputy director before retiring in 1977. He died on 18 July 2001.

Published work Ground and air survey for field scientists by John W. Wright, Clarendon Press Oxford (1982) SPRI Library Shelf 528

From the guide to the John Wright collection, 1934-1938, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)