From THE CITY OF OXFORD HIGH SCHOOL MAGAZINE VoL. LIV, iii JULY 1962 no 175
‘ Labuntur anni nec pietas moram ‘ — as for our Headmaster, so for ‘George’ — a name that Mr. George Wright has borne with distinction in our midst since the early ’30s, when he joined the staff and developed the teaching of History as a Sixth Form subject.
He did not take long to make his presence felt and — I would add – appreciated. Starting almost from scratch he has built up over the years a strong History department, to which a long line of University and academic successes bears honourable witness. Yet I think that George will pride himself more upon what he has done for the underdog, the academically untouchable, who could never aspire to scholastic eminence. There are many old pupils who owe their university careers to him: there are even more who received from him not only that encouragement which saw them through to success in fields other than academic, but also a ready and unstinted help in their choice of employment. Let a boy have but a trace of character, determination or talent, and George, like his own creation, Dan the Dog Detective, would scent it out and give its owner all the assistance at his command.
For more years than he will care to count the School Library has been under his watchful eye. Despite the heavy discouragements of cramped quarters and (from his point of view) even more cramped finance, his unending efforts have kept the use of the Library alive and even flourishing. Nor can we forget his part in the Dramatic Society, which in its not so distant hey-day, under George’s experienced direction, produced with truly splendid effect dramas we have thought beyond the capabilities of a School Dramatic Society. Truly I believe that George was never so happy as when he was shouldering a production, being everywhere and everything in rehearsals up to any hour of night. There are many other departments of school life-cricket, school-trips, discussion groups, etc., with which George has concerned himself-for he has been all-pervasive-but on which I have not the space to dwell. ‘Nil tetigit quod non ornavit’.
The Common Room without him will not be the same. Drawing upon a truly variegated experience-schoolboy at Hereford Cathedral School, undergraduate at B.N.C., hospital train personnel in the first war, fire warden in the second, pageant master, actor, schoolmaster, B.B.C. playwright, novelist, part-founder of the Youth Hostels Movement, and schoolmaster once again, he has never failed to enliven our discussions and widen our horizons. A committee man par excellence, unrivalled in his knowledge of procedure, equal to all subtleties, outfaced by no difficulties, he has given enthusiastically of his own energies and private life for the benefit of his colleagues in this and other schools. As a staff we owe to him more than can be detailed here. May he have before him many happy years of profitable leisure!