MS 8119
Papers of Ferdinand Henry Wright (1897-1978)



Scope and Content Note

  • 1897-1978
  • 4.34 metres (31 boxes)
  • Available for reference
This collection was donated to the National Library in 1982 by Colonel Wright's grandson Michael Wright. At the time of donation the collection was in great disarray and a preliminary state of decay. With the exception of the bound correspondence the collection was in no discernable order. Consequently the arrangement of the collection is one artificially devised by the staff of the Manuscripts Section.

Biographical Note

Ferdinand Henry Wright was born at South Yarra, Victoria on 29 September 1888, the son of Edmund Wright. In 1904 he commenced working for the Batavia Sea and Fire Insurance Company, a firm with which he was associated for the next sixty years. In 1918 he became Australasian General Manager, a position he held until his retirement in 1953. In 1935 Wright became the Australian manager of the British based firm Royal Exchange Assurance, which by then had become the sole owner of the Batavia Insurance Company. After his retirement Wright became the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Australian and Eastern Insurance Company, the name which the Batavia Sea and Fire Insurance Company had adopted after Indonesian independence. At around the same time he also became director of a number of other companies including S.H. Lock and Co., Bradford Cotton Mills Ltd, Felt and Textiles of Australia Ltd and Godfrey Phillips Ltd.

In 1909 Wright enlisted in the Australian Army reserve, joining the 6th Infantry Regiment. A year later he was commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant. During the First World War he served as a Captain with the 14th Infantry Battalion. After landing on Gallipoli on Anzac Day 1915 he was seriously wounded and invalided home to Australia. Between the Wars he continued his association with the Army, achieving the ranks of Lieutenant-Colonel with the 29th Battalion in 1926, and Colonel in 1943. During the Second World War he served as a Senior Liaison Officer attached to Army Headquarters, and carried out several secret missions to Malaya, New Guinea and the Netherlands Indies.

From 1921 to 1951 Wright was Consul for the Netherlands in Victoria, after which he became Consul-General until 1954. Wright also spent forty years as a member of the Council of the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce. He represented Australia at a number of conferences of the International Chamber of Commerce.

In 1911 Wright married Rosa Davies. They had five children: Henry, Ferdinand Heathcote, Rosemary, Margaret and Patricia. Heathcote achieved a Master of Business Administration at Harvard, and later became a Manager of H.C. Sleigh and Company. Rosa died in 1961 while Wright died in 1981 at the age of 92.

Series List

Series 1         Family papers, 1897-1978        (Boxes 1-3)               
Series 2        Bound correspondence, 1910-1946 (Boxes 4-16)               
Series 3        Personal papers: friends and community, 1906-1978 (Boxes   
                17-18)                                                     
Series 4        Career in Insurance, 1908-1963  (Boxes 18-21)              
Series 5        Army, 1910-1955                 (Boxes 22-23)              
Series 6        Political activities, 1922-1978 (Box 23)                   
Series 7        Consular activities, 1922-1978  (Box 24)                   
Series 8        Personal finances and investments, 1905-1978 (Boxes        
                25-26)                                                     
Series 9        Post-retirement business involvements and directorships,   
                1953-1978     (Box 27)                                     
Series 10       Overseas trips, 1927-1973       (Boxes 28-29)              
Series 11       Photographs, 1890s-1974         (Box 29)                   
Series 12       Miscellaneous printed material  (Boxes 30-31)              


Series Description

SERIES 1 FAMILY PAPERS, 1897-1978

This series consists mostly of family correspondence and includes        
letters between F.H. Wright and his wife Rosa dating back to 1906 and    
correspondence with their five children Harry, Rosemary, Margaret,       
Heathcote and Patricia.  Included are a large number of letters from     
his son Heathcote describing in detail his experiences as a student at   
Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration during     
the years 1939-40.  Also included in this series are Rosa Wright's       
appointment diaries, 1932-37, and a diary kept by his daughter           
Rosemary on a visit to Indonesia in 1954.  Letters written by F.H.       
Wright to his wife while he was on active service during the First       
World War are have been placed in Series 5.                              

SERIES 2 BOUND CORRESPONDENCE, 1910-1946

The inwards and outwards correspondence is arranged alphabetically       
within yearly volumes.  This large series consists mostly of personal    
(non-family) correspondence and covers a wide variety of areas of        
activity including insurance, politics, business and investment, the     
Army and consular duties.  See Appendix A for the box list for this      
series.  Series 3 also contains further personal letters (unbound).      

SERIES 3 PERSONAL PAPERS: FRIENDS AND COMMUNITY, 1906-1978

This series includes unbound personal (non-family) letters, greeting     
cards, invitations, an address book and papers relating to Wright's      
membership of, and involvement in various clubs and community            
organisations.  Included in this latter material is a file of papers     
relating to the removal of Reverend James Waterhouse from St John's      
Church, Toorak in the late 1930s. Wright was a vestryman of St John's    
for over thirty years.  Other clubs and organisations represented        
include the Melbourne Savage Club, the Freemasons, the Australian        
Club, the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce, the Travel League, the West     
Brighton Club, the Peninsula Country Golf Club, the Royal Sydney Yacht   
Squadron, the Naval and Military Club and the K.K. Club.  The K.K.       
("King of Klubs") Club was formed in 1919 in honour of Sir John          
Monash.  The small group of papers relating to this club includes a      
long letter from Wright to Sir Charles Lowe (1961) recording his         
memories of Monash.  Sir Robert Menzies was also a long-term member of   
the K.K. Club.                                                           

SERIES 4 CAREER IN INSURANCE, 1908-1963

This series includes correspondence, financial statements, carbon        
letter books, coded telegrams, memoranda and other papers relating to    
Wright's career with the Batavia Sea and Fire Insurance Company and      
the Royal Exchange Assurance.  His position as Australasian Manager      
for the Batavia Company included responsibility for operations in New    
Zealand, Fiji, Tahiti and Samoa.  In this capacity he made a number of   
visits to these places throughout the 1920s and 1930s.  See also         
Series 2 for bound personal correspondence relating to his career in     
insurance.                                                               

SERIES 5 ARMY, 1910-1951

F.H. Wright joined the Citizen's Militia in 1909 and was commissioned    
as a Lieutenant in 1910.  During the First World War he served as a      
Captain with the 14th Infantry Regiment and landed at Gallipoli on 25    
April 1915 where he was seriously wounded. After several months in       
hospital at Alexandria he was invalided home.  The papers in this        
series include a large number of detailed letters written by Wright to   
his wife from training camp at Broadmeadows, on board ship en route to   
Egypt, from camp in Egypt, from Lemnos prior to the Gallipoli landing,   
from the hospital ship after being wounded and from Alexandria.  Also    
included with these papers are secret orders issued prior to the         
Gallipoli landing, letters of condolence on his injury, printed          
material, postcards from Ceylon and Egypt, newscuttings and other        
correspondence.  After the War Wright continued his association with     
the Army, and in the Second World War worked as a Director of the        
Australian Comforts Fund.  As a Senior Liaison Officer attached to       
Army Headquarters, Colonel Wright carried out several secret missions    
to Malaya, New Guinea and the Netherlands Indies. Towards the end of     
the War he was asked to investigate the reestablishment of Dutch         
civilian administration in West New Guinea.  All of these activities     
are documented in the second half of this series.                        

SERIES 6 POLITICAL ACTIVITIES, 1922-1978

From the 1920s onwards Wright maintained an active interest in the       
conservative side of Australian politics.  He was a friend and           
supporter of Robert Menzies.  This small series includes                 
correspondence, clippings, leaflets and memoranda relating in            
particular to the political career of Menzies.  Included are some        
papers relating to the disarray of the conservative parties in the       
early 1940s and the formation of the Liberal Party.  A regular           
correspondent of Wright's on these matters was Staniforth Ricketson of   
J.B. Were and Son, who was also a close friend of Menzies.               

SERIES 7 CONSULAR ACTIVITIES, 1922-1978

From 1924 to 1951 Wright was Consul for the Netherlands in Victoria,     
and from 1951 to 1954 he was Consul-General for the Netherlands.  This   
series includes correspondence, speeches, printed material, reports,     
newscuttings, telegrams and invitations relating to his work as          
Consul.  Papers of particular interest in this series include material   
on the Dutch national airline, forerunner of the present KLM,            
tendering for the carriage of mail between Europe and Australia.         
Correspondence on this matter sheds light on the development of          
commercial aviation in Australia. Another subject touched upon in this   
series is the Dutch withdrawal from Indonesia in the 1940s.              

SERIES 8 PERSONAL FINANCES AND INVESTMENTS, 1905-1978

This series includes receipts, financial statements, prosectuses,        
mortgages, bank statements, title deeds, correspondence, reports,        
income tax returns and printed material relating to Wright's personal    
investments and finances.  From his early 20s onwards Wright held        
extensive share portfolios and engaged in a number of business           
ventures in Australia, the Netherlands Indies and Fiji. From the 1930s   
onwards most of Wright's investments were managed by the stockbrokers    
J.B. Were and Son.                                                       

SERIES 9 POST-RETIREMENT BUSINESS INVOLVEMENTS ANDDIRECTORSHIPS, 1953-1978

After his retirement as General-Manager of the Australian and Eastern    
Insurance Company (previously the Batavia Sea and Fire Insurance         
Company) in 1953, Wright took up directorships with a number of          
companies.  This series includes correspondence, reports, statements     
and printed material relating to such companies as Godfrey Phillips,     
Hecla Electrics, Burlington Mills, S.H. Lock and Co., Bradford Cotton    
Mills, and Felt and Textiles of Australia.  Also represented in this     
series are papers relating to Wright's membership of the Australian      
National Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce.  For        
papers relating to overseas meeting of the ICC see Series 10.            

SERIES 10 OVERSEAS TRIPS, 1927-1973

Apart from his regular travels to the South Pacific and the Dutch East   
Indies, Wright made a number of trips further afield between 1927 and    
1973.  Papers relating to these trips include correspondence,            
itineraries, printed ephemera, postcards, memorabilia and letters of     
introduction.  Trips covered include Europe (1927, 1939, 1947, 1957,     
1959-60, 1963, 1964 and 1973), New Zealand (1937), Mexico (1963) and     
Trinidad (1964).  Many of these trips incorporated meetings of the       
International Chamber of Commerce.                                       

SERIES 11 PHOTOGRAPHS, 1890s-1974

Mostly family portraits and snapshots with some negatives.               

SERIES 12 MISCELLANEOUS PRINTED MATERIAL

Includes unsorted newscuttings, business cards, printed ephemera,        
invitations, menus, periodicals and circulars.                           

Appendix A - Box List for Series 2 (Bound Correspondence)

Box 4            1910-1917                                                 
Box 5            1918-June 1922                                            
Box 6            July 1922-1924                                            
Box 7            1925                                                      
Box 8            1926-March 1927                                           
Box 9            January-March 1927, 1928                                  
Box 10           1929                                                      
Box 11           1930-1931                                                 
Box 12           1932-1933                                                 
Box 13           1934-1935                                                 
Box 14           1936-1938                                                 
Box 15           1939-1942                                                 
Box 16           1943-1946                                                 

Guide prepared 1991. Last updated April 1997