Geoffrey Wright was born in India in 1912, the son of Herbert Lawrence and Agnes Winnifred Wright (née Jerram). At age 13 he was sent home to England and went to the Imperial Service College at Haileybury.

He joined the Royal Navy as a Midshipman (E) on 1 January 1932, and was appointed to the Royal Naval Engineering College at Keyham for the Engineering Course, where he was promoted to Sub Lieutenant (E) on 1 May 1934. On completion, he was appointed to the battleship HMS RESOLUTION for Engineering Duties on 2 September 1935. An appointment to the battleship HMS ROYAL SOVEREIGN followed on 28 November 1935. Geoffrey Wright was promoted to Lieutenant (E) on 1 February 1937 and, on 29 June 1937 he was appointed to the cruiser HMS NORFOLK.

He married Elizabeth Ross of Lower Bourne, Surrey, in June 1939 in Kensington.

In 1939, he was appointed to HMS DOLPHIN ‘for the Submarine Course‘ and on 15 November 1939 he was appointed to the Submarine Depot Ship HMS FORTH ‘for Submarines‘. In May 1940 he was appointed to HMS TRIUMPH as the Engineering Officer. On 20 January 1942, TRIUMPH was reported lost with all hands during a patrol in the Aegean Sea having been sunk by a mine in the Gulf of Athens.

Geoffrey Wright is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial on Panel No. 62 Column No. 1.

Geoffrey Wright’s MBE (Military) was awarded (London Gazette of 17 February 1942) for the following act of bravery:

“When during a series of enemy attacks on Malta dockyards, a merchantman heavily laden with ammunition, was bombed and set on fire, he (Lieutenant Wright) and a chief stoker from HMS Triumph boarded her. They went below to the burning engine room where they stopped machinery, deadened electrical circuits, and prepared to scuttle the ship if necessary. Later this officer and his ship mates boarded a dockyard tug lying unattended alongside, banked up her fires, and shut off her machinery, so that should she be hit there would be less danger of an explosion which might again set fire to the merchantman.”

Both his Mention in Despatches (London Gazette of 20 January 1942) and the Distinguished Service Cross (London Gazette of 5 May 1942) were awarded for courage, skill and devotion to duty while serving on HMS TRIUMPH in the Mediterranean before she was lost.