William Bulloch Wright (born 1900) was an English

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

wing half A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

inside forward Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

. He played in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

for

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

(spending a decade with the club, though only a regular for a few seasons – he did not feature in any of their three

FA Cup Final The FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the FA Cup, Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the List of sports attendance figures, most attended domestic football ev ...

victories in the period)Wright Billy Image 1 Bolton 1931
Vintage Footballers and

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

(five seasons, making 193 appearances in all competitions). He then moved to France to become manager of

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of ...

for the 1938–39 season (also registered as a player, he made no competitive appearances) but with the team threatened with relegation, he was replaced by compatriot

Sid Kimpton Gabriel Sibley "Sid" Kimpton, also known as George Kimpton, (12 August 1887 – 15 February 1968) was an English football player, who spent his entire playing career with Southampton and subsequently became a manager in Europe. Playing career K ...

prior to the last round of league fixtures.Saison 1938-1939 / 14ème Division 1
eason 1938-1939 / 14th Division 1 Fédération des Culs Rouges (in French) Wright then returned to England and was a trainer – and briefly caretaker manager in 1946 – of the newly renamed

Leyton Orient Leyton Orient Football Club is a professional football club based in Leyton, East London, England, who compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They are the second oldest football club in London to play at a professio ...

, later following namesake Billy P. Wright to Chingford Town in 1948. His father, Scotsman

Jocky Wright John Wright (4 February 1873 – 1946) was a Scottish footballer who played in the Football League for Bolton Wanderers and The Wednesday, and the Southern League for Plymouth Argyle, Watford and Southend United. He was an inside forward. ...

, was also a footballer who played for several clubs across Britain including Bolton Wanderers and

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...

, where he was based when Billy was born;Wright, John (1902)
Hamilton Academical Memory Bank his brother

Doug Wright Douglas Wright (born December 20, 1962) is an American playwright, librettist, and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2004 for his play ''I Am My Own Wife''. Early years Wright was born in Dallas, Texas. He attended and ...

(17 years younger and born in

Southend-on-Sea Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, east of central London. It is bordered ...

where the family settled) played for

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...

and Lincoln City and was

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in 1938.Wright, John (1943)
Hamilton Academical Memory Bank

References

1900 births Year of death missing Footballers from Sheffield Sportspeople from Essex English people of Scottish descent Association football wing halves Association football inside forwards Association football coaches English footballers Chelmsford City F.C. players Southend United F.C. players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Reading F.C. players FC Rouen players English Football League players English football managers Leyton Orient F.C. managers Ligue 1 managers FC Rouen managers Expatriate football managers in France English expatriate football managers English expatriate sportspeople in France {{england-footy-midfielder-1900s-stub