Tribute - Douglas Wright

years for Mike when he taught in London but was away from his beloved mountains. However, in 1977 he started his first “real job” as a chemical engineer at the pulp mill in Corpach in the shadow of Ben Nevis and from there he was able to trail blaze climbs such as Galactic Hitchhiker, Five Finger Discount and Route II to name but a few. It was in Fort William that he met Helen Wood and they married in 1980. Helen was herself an experienced climber and walker and the pair of them moved to Aberdeen from where Mike intended to start work as a self-employed IT consultant. Sadly, however, tragedy struck in late 1983 when he contracted a severe form of oesophagal cancer. Having survived the operation Helen and he made a move to Boat of Garten where they had plans to combine mountain guiding and running a guest house along with his computer consultancy. After a slow but doged recovery fate intervened and his cancer returned, eventually defeating him. On the day of his death it was only fitting that in the Highlands it rained incessantly as if “his” mountains were shedding tears for him. Mike was taken far too early from all of us. Had he lived longer he would undoubtedly have been hailed as the leading Scottish ice climber of his generation. But it was not just his climbing that made Mike remarkable. His accounts of his climbs, his hillwalking and ski touring were poetry in themselves and his conversation sparkled with erudition, wit and humour.

John Archer

Douglas Wright

(17/1/1946-8/2/1970)

There has been much debate recently in the media about the damaging effects of concussion in sport with particular attention on soccer and rugby, be it Union or

League. The devastating impact on a family having to cope with the illness cannot be under-estimated and to see loved ones disintegrate over a period of time must be heart-breaking. In soccer the Astle family have bravely made public the tragic case of Jeff Astle who played for West Bromwich Albion for many years but died at age fifty nine from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) caused by heading the heavy leather footballs used in his day. England’s football World Cup winner Nobby Stlies is also reckoned to have had advanced dementia again contributed to by heading footballs. Studies are ongoing and it is hoped that the advent of the lighter football may reduce damage from heading in the long term and of course medical attention is much better than it ever was but the importance of recognising concussion in sport is vitally important and possibly life-saving. Rugby Union is now beginning to investigate the long term effect of head injuries following disclosure that the England World Cup winning hooker Steve Thomson has been diagnosed with early onset dementia. Other former players are also coming forward to reveal their own problems caused by head injuries. The FP Rugby Club now has a doctor on site at every first fifteen home game and if at all possible someone with a bit of a medical background at lower-level games. There are also physiotherapists in attendance for muscle injuries etc. However this was not always the case as many of us well remember the days when the only “medical” attention available was a bloke on the sidelines with a bucket and wet sponge……and that was just for the 1st XV. The lower sides had even less, relying on a committee man be he a surveyor, lawyer or bank manager! In those days you were expected to shake off a knock and just get on with the game. Before the merger Melville FP Rugby Club was having one of its best seasons for many a year, with four fifteens turning out and young men keen to join the Club to play the game. In 1969 a young student named Douglas Wright turned up at Ferryfield looking for a game and very soon made his mark as a hardtackling wing forward quickly forcing his way into the first fifteen. However in December of that year the worst of all possible tragedies occurred. The first fifteen was playing either Glasgow University or Hutcheson’s Grammar School at Ferryfield (nobody can quite remember the exact opposition!) when Douglas was badly injured following a tackle. He was seen to have been hurt at the bottom of a ruck and at the next line-out had to be virtually held up by team-mates. It appeared to be a serious injury and he was carried from the pitch on a duckboard by amongst others Alan Veitch a ball boy at the match and currently Chairman of the Melville College Trust. The injured player was driven to the Western General Hospital by Richard De Soldenhoff, a young medical student at the time, in his Austin A35 van. Douglas was later transferred to the Royal Infirmary. He was kept in hospital for weeks until the tragic news reached the Club that he had died on 8th February 1970. His Death Certificate stated that the cause of death was “Head Injury”. It is thought that Wright had previously suffered a head injury but was so enthusiastic about rugby that he refused to miss a match. He had clearly suffered concussion in an earlier match or matches, had come back far too soon and suffered another ultimately fatal head knock. Nowadays of course he would not have been permitted to play for at least three weeks as a preventative measure. The Rugby Club and the FP Club were devastated as of course were his parents David and Marion. A clock in Wright’s memory hung in the Ferryfield clubhouse then Inverleith for very many years before eventually falling apart but those of us old enough still remember the tragedy. Thankfully as stated lessons have been learned and it is hoped that such an event will never happen again. Despite the bulking-up of players and bigger “hits” the number of deaths in rugby is thankfully remarkably few although one is too many. It is generally accepted that the benefits of playing sport seriously outweigh the risks but we never wish such an unfortunate event to be repeated. Apologies if some of the information contained here is inaccurate but the incident happened a long time ago and those of us who remember it are getting on a bit!

Bobby Clark