Winifred Grace Wright

For the next 30 years from 1919 to 1949 she worked in the Chemistry Department of Battersea Polytechnic. During that period she married John Wright, a consultant on high-tension power lines, and raised a family of 3 daughters.

In 1949 she emigrated to South Africa where her husband was working for Eskom, the State electricity supplier, on power lines between Colenso and Durban. The erection of pylons resulted in the destruction of numerous plants, and John Wright suggested that Winifred document those, but she soon found that there was very little in the way of reference literature. Consequently, she embarked on a project to describe and illustrate the wild flowers, leading to the publication of a small field guide, 'The Wild Flowers of Southern Africa - Natal - A Rambler's Pocket Guide'. Her frequent visits to the Durban Herbarium to identify plants sparked such an interest that she started research at the University of Natal into the chemistry of local flora, resulting in a Ph.D. in 1954.

• 'Chemistry Was Their Life - Pioneer British Women Chemists, 1880–1949' - Marelene Rayner-Canham, Geoff Rayner-Canham,Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada (Imperial College Press, 2008)
• 'The Wild Flowers of Southern Africa - Natal - A Rambler's Pocket Guide' - Dr. Winifred G. Wright (Nelson, 1963)