Hedley Duncan Wright was born on 3 March 1891 in Ulverstone, Tasmania, and was of Scottish descent. He studied at Queen's College, Hobart, where he obtained a B.A. (Tasm) in 1910, and then at Edinburgh University where he studied Medicine and obtained the M.B. and Ch.B., in 1916. Subsequently at Edinburgh he was awarded his M.D. in 1925, and D.Sc. in 1927. During the First World War, Wright served with the Royal Army Medical Corps for four years, in France, India, and Persia. After the war he returned to Edinburgh to take up research in Bacteriology. At Edinburgh University he held the post of Lecturer, 1920-1921, and at the Royal College of Physicians he held the post of Assistant Superintendent of the Research Laboratory, 1921-1923. In 1923 he went to London to become Lecturer and Reader at the University College Hospital. From 1930, Wright was Professor of Bacteriology at the University of Sydney, Australia, and then in 1934 he returned to Britain to become Professor of Bacteriology at the University of Liverpool. He was also the City Bacteriologist. Professor Hedley Duncan Wright died in Liverpool on 9 September 1942.