Andrew Barkworth Wright

Sir Andrew Barkworth Wright, KCMG CBE MC (with Bar) (30 November 1895 – 24 March 1971) was a British Army officer and colonial official.

Biography

Wright was born in Knowle, Dorset, the son of an Anglican clergyman. He was educated at Haileybury and at Jesus College, Cambridge University, before serving in the British Army's Suffolk Regiment during World War I, for which he was awarded the Military Cross.

He joined the civil administration of Cyprus in 1922, rising to become its colonial secretary in 1937. Wright reenlisted in the army during World War II, leaving with the rank of lieutenant colonel to become colonial secretary of Trinidad in 1943.

In January 1947, he was appointed governor of Gambia. Although Wright was not involved in the planning, it was during his tenure of office that the colonial development corporation made and implemented its decision to invest in the disastrous Yundum Egg Scheme and the marginal experimental rice farm at Walli Kunda. Wright had to frame his budgets with the knowledge that much of the financing for continued improvements in the economic and social sphere envisaged by the British government in the period immediately after World War II would not be forthcoming. Wright was also responsible for organising the first direct election to the legislative council in November 1947 and for reforming the membership of executive council; as a result he was a very popular governor, and there were protests in Bathhurst when he left the Gambia in December 1949 and became governor of Cyprus. He retired from this position in 1954.