WRIGHT, Richard Ernest

Architect

Was born in Britain; he appears to have come to the Cape in about 1874 when he was appointed assistant engineer to the Railway Department and district engineer in January 1875. He was transferred to the PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT in the Cape Colony, in October 1876 in the post of District Engineer, Port Elizabeth and apparently had his own practice as well. He won several competitions in Uitenhage such as the Public Baths (n.d.) and the Town Hall (1881). Wright was appointed District Engineer in Kimberley in December 1883 and was promoted to consulting engineer in charge of Public Works in British Bechuanaland and Griqualand West. He was transferred back to Port Elizabeth in 1893 where he was responsible for designing the Cottage Hospital, Uitenhage, and the elaborate Public Buildings, executed for the PWD (1896-8). He was still working for the PWD in 1910.

(Heroldt 1988; Uitenhage P&P 1904)

All truncated references not fully cited in 'References' are those of Joanna Walker's original text and cited in full in the 'Bibliography' entry of the Lexicon.

List of projects

With photographs
With notes

Magistrates Court and Offices: 1880. Kariega (Uitenhage), Eastern Cape - Design Architect

Masonic Hall: 1880. Kariega (Uitenhage), Eastern Cape - Architect

Municipal Complex - Town Hall: 1881-1882 : 1955. Kariega (Uitenhage), Eastern Cape - Design Architect

Public Baths: n.d.. Kariega (Uitenhage), Eastern Cape - Architect

Public Buildings: 1896. Kariega (Uitenhage), Eastern Cape - Architect

Books citing WRIGHT

Fransen, Hans. 2004. The old buildings of the Cape. A survey of extant architecture from before c1910 in the area of Cape Town - Calvinia - Colesberg - Uitenhage. Johannesburg & Cape Town: Jonathan Ball Publishers. pp 528

S2A3 (Plug, C - Project Leader and main compiler). 2002-. S2A3 biographical database of southern African science. Webspace: WWW. pp Accessed 12 January 2016