Name William Wright Role Northern Irish Politician | Party Ulster Unionist Party | |
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William Thompson Wright (born 1925) is a Northern Irish business owner and former Unionist politician.
Wright grew up in Ballymena, and first came to prominence in the late 1950s, when he joined his father's company, the vehicle body building business Robert Wright & Son.
In the 1970s, Wright joined the Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party, and was elected as its Chairman. He stood for the party in North Antrim at the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention election in 1975, and was elected. He later followed the party leaders in joining the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), and was elected to Ballymena Borough Council for this new party at the Northern Ireland local elections, 1981, He lost his seat at the 1985 election, and did not stand in 1989, but was re-elected in 1993 and won again in 1997. He also stood for the Northern Ireland Forum in 1996, but was not elected. In 1998, he resigned from the UUP, and stood unsuccessfully in the 1998 Northern Ireland Assembly election as an independent Unionist. He held his council seat in 2001, before finally standing down in 2005.
Outside politics, Wright took over the family business, moving it into the construction of buses, a process which saw it become the Wright Group, with Wrightbus as its best-known subsidiary. In the 2011 Birthday Honours, he was awarded the CBE.