Colebrook/Wright Papers

Context

Creator(s): Wright, Sir Almroth Edward, 1861-1947 Colebrook, Leonard, 1883-1967 Colebrook, Vera, fl. mid-late twentieth century

• Administrative History ↴

  Almroth Wright was born in Yorkshire in 1861, the son of an Irish clergyman. Wright studied medicine at Trinity, taking his medical degree in 1883. Wright was appointed Professor of Pathology at Netley in1892, moving in 1902 to St. Mary's Hospital where he founded the research laboratory. In both institutions he researched extensively in bacteriology and immunology. During the First World War Wright established a research unit to study the bacteriology of wound infection, attached to the British Army Hospital in Boulogne. Wright returned to St. Mary's after the War and continued to work until 1946 when he was 85. He was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland in 1933. Wright died in April 1947. At St. Mary's Wright taught many of the leading immunologist and bacteriologist of the twentieth century including Sir Alexander Fleming and Leonard Colebrook. Colebrook was born in 1883 and studied medicine at St. Mary's Hospital, where he received lectures from Sir Almroth Wright, who became a friend and research partner. During the First World War he served in the RAMC researching into wound infections at St. Mary's and in Wright's laboratory in Boulogne. Following the war he worked on the prevention of puerperal fever, establishing the effectivness of Prontosil. During the Second World War he worked on burn injuries and from 1942-1948 was director of the Burns Investigation Unit of the Medical Research Council. He died in September 1967.

• Archival History ↴

  Wright's papers seem to have been preserved following his death by Colebrook, and after his death by his wife Vera. The papers were donated to the archive by Vera Colebrook, nee Locke, in 1984.

• Immediate Source Acquisition ↴

  Donation