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Walsh Wrightson (Trinidad & Tobago)

Information & Photos courtesy of The Trinidad & Tobago Library

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Seeking any further information on Walsh Wrightson

I can only locate one Englishman that would 'fit' Walsh Wrightson's profile. He was born in Skipton, Yorkshire Dec (qtr) 1852 his name was given as Walshe Wrightson (the 'e' in Walsh possibly a typo) If this was the same Wrightson this would make Mr. Wrightson 43 years of age at the time of his appointment, as Director of Public Works for Trinidad & Tobago.

Shirley Davy of Boston found a Ship's Manifest with Walsh Wrightson this 'fits' with the previous information which puts Walsh as born 1852, Skipton, Yorkshire

Personal Information   
 
Name:    Walsh Wrightson
Arrival Date:    25 Mar 1889 
Age:    36 
Gender:    Male 
Port of Departure:    Liverpool, England and Queenstown, England 
Place of Origin:    Lpool,ENG 
Ship Name:    Etruria 
Port of Arrival:    New York 
Line:    3 
Microfilm Roll:    530 
List Number:    330 

Walsh(e) Wrightson [parents] of Skipton born Dec qtr 1852 

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Mr. Walsh Wrightson was an Englishman who held the post of director of public works from 1895 to 1907. 

He was responsible for several important works, including the construction, in 1900, of what later became known as Wrightson Road.

          He constructed this road as an access road from the western end of London Street to get to a distant point by the seaside on the Woodbrook Estate.  The purpose of his constructing this road to lead well out of town and by the sea was to establish a pumping station to pump the town’s sewerage into the sea.

The remains of this building were demolished some time in 1977.

Wrightson became the central figure in the water riots of 1903 mainly because he drafted a waterworks bill seeking to install water meters in homes. 

This bill, which was hotly opposed, sparked off the unrest.  The episode had political implications because the agitation against the waterworks bill was said to arise from bitterness caused by the abolition, in 1899, of the borough council of Port-of-Spain. 

One of the imposing buildings erected in his period of office, and a building, which forms part of what is known as “the Magnificent Seven,” is the Queen’s Royal College Building, which lies on the western side of the Queen’s Park Savannah.