Major Maurice E. A. Wright A.F.C.,B.A., F.R.Ae.S 1893-1957

Maurice Wright (left) with Gordon Slade

Maurice Wright was born in 1893 and was educated at Marlborough and Caius College,Cambridge. Shortly before the First World War, as an airminded undergraduate, he frequented Eastchurch,Isle of Sheppey, where he met Sir Richard Fairey(Dick Fairey),as he was at the time). A friendship began which was to last for more than forty years. In 1914 Maurice Wright volunteered for the Royal Naval Air Service and flew throughout the war on operations in the North Sea,the Dardanelles, Bulgaria, Syria,Aden and Egypt. After transferring to the R.A.F. in 1918 he became an Air Ministry test pilot,and in 1924, with long experience of seaplanes and flying-boats,he joined the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment at Felixstowe as chief technical officer. In 1925 Dick Fairey,who had formed his own company in 1915, invited Maurice Wright to join the Fairey Aviation Company as a director. In his thirty-two years with the company the latter flew a great number of different Fairey aircraft—the last in 1948—bringing his total of types flown to more than 170. He was chairman of Avions Fairey and a member of the Council of the Society of British Aircraft Constructors.