Jabez Wright

Who was Jabez Wright?

Jabez Wright was an English-born Australian politician.

Wright was born at Greenwich in England, the son of Jabez Gladstone Wright. He worked in North and South America before moving to South Australia, eventually settling in Broken Hill around 1888. On 15 January 1878 Wright had married Honora Kearney, with whom he had four children. He worked as a carpenter and then as an undertaker, and was a member of the Australian Workers' Union. From 1896 to 1902 Wright was an alderman at Broken Hill, serving as mayor from 1900 to 1901. He was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 1913 as the Labor member for Willyama. With the introduction of proportional representation in 1920 Wright was defeated running for Sturt, but filled the vacancy caused by the murder of Percy Brookfield in 1921. Wright himself caused a vacancy a year later when he died at Bondi.