William Henry "Bill" Wright (21 April 1876 – 20 September 1951) was a Canadian prospector. In 1911, he discovered the Kirkland Lake Break, which hosted seven gold-producing mines. He used the proceeds from his gold finds to launch a national newspaper in Canada, ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

''.

Early life

Wright was born in Sleaford, Lincolnshire,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. As a teenager, he worked as a butcher's apprentice. In 1897, he joined the

British army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

and served both at home and in the colonies. He served through the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...

and survived the

siege of Ladysmith The siege of Ladysmith was a protracted engagement in the Second Boer War, taking place between 2 November 1899 and 28 February 1900 at Ladysmith, Natal. Background As war with the Boer republics appeared likely in June 1899, the War Offic ...

. After the war he came into the possession of a Veteran's Lot in the Porcupine area of Ontario. As Pain points out, "The proverbial luck of the British Army was with him." This lot was later sold by Wright to the Buffalo-Ankerite Mine for reaping him a hefty profit. This in addition to his later discovery of free gold along the Main Break quartz vein in 1911, though "he knew nothing of mining or geology." In 1907, Wright moved to Canada joining his sister, Frances Wright, and her husband, Edward Hargreaves, a master butcher in

northern Ontario Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on part of the Superior Geological Pro ...

. The three of them went to Cobalt, Ontario in search of work. Wright and Hargreaves worked at a variety of odd jobs before attempting prospecting. They started in Cobalt, then went on to Porcupine, and finally to Kirkland Lake.

The discovery

One evening in July 1911, Hargreaves became lost while hunting for rabbits. He fired a shot to attract the Wrights' attention. Wright walked towards Hargreaves and stumbled across a

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica ( silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical ...

outcrop An outcrop or rocky outcrop is a visible exposure of bedrock or ancient superficial deposits on the surface of the Earth. Features Outcrops do not cover the majority of the Earth's land surface because in most places the bedrock or superficia ...

. It was almost dusk, but he could see free gold in reddish feldspar porphyry. The next day, they staked three claims, two of which turned out to be directly on the

fault line In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...

of the area. The partners staked more claims over the following weeks. This initial discovery was the first rich find that established the Kirkland Lake camp. Soon after the claims were made, the partnership ended. Hargreaves needed to support his wife, so he sold his interest in the claims. Wright was single. He held onto his interest, despite a lack of funds and harsh conditions. He was determined to hold and work the claims. The ground staked by Wright and Hargreaves eventually became three mines: Sylvanite, Lakeshore and Wright-Hargreaves. The gold extracted from these three mines totaled 13.5 million ounces. Wright had sold the claims that became Sylvanite to Harry Oakes in exchange for Lakeshore property, shares in the mine and a vice-presidency. The mine for which Wright is best known is the one that bears his name, the Wright Hargreaves.

World War I

In 1916, Wright felt the need to support the Allies in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Though he was a millionaire and almost forty years old, he joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force as a private. According to Pain, Wright "must have been the wealthiest private in the Army." He remained a private throughout the war, though he had to turn down the opportunity of promotion several times.

Post-war career

After the war, he focused on the Wright-Hargreaves mine. He became vice-president of the Lake Shore and Wright-Hargreaves companies. It operated from 1921 to 1965 and was one of Canada's premier gold mines. The profits from this mine were used to build a major mining company with interests across Canada. In 1936, Wright was approached by George McCullagh with the idea of acquiring two Toronto newspapers, '' The Globe'' and ''

The Mail and Empire ''The Mail and Empire'' was formed from the 1895 merger of '' The Toronto Mail'' (owned by Charles Alfred Riordan and managed by Christopher W. Bunting) and '' Toronto Empire'' newspapers, both conservative newspapers in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ...

'', and merging them. Wright went along with the plan and founded ''

'', which became Canada's national newspaper. Until it moved to its current location in the early 1970s, The Globe and Mail was published in the art deco William H. Wright Building at 140 King St. W. in Toronto's financial district, since demolished. In his later years, Wright lived in Barrie, Ontario, performed community work and raised horses. He was the breeder of Archworth, winner of the 1939 King's Plate. McCullagh, who had purchased the horse from Wright as a

yearling Yearling may refer to: *Yearling (horse), a horse between one and two years old *''The Yearling ''The Yearling'' is a novel by American writer Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, published in March 1938. It was the main selection of the Book of the Mo ...

, said, "It's a great day for me, but I am only the stuffed shirt who bought him for $500. My thrill is nothing at all compared to the joy in Bill Wright's heart. It's been a lifelong dream. When he came to this country from England he used to watch the races at Woodbine from a knothole in the fence. Standing there, he vowed that if he ever struck it rich, he would try to breed a winner of the Plate. The dream came true today."

References

Globe and Mail’s beginnings ''Time Magazine''History of Kirkland Lake
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, William Henry British Army soldiers British Army personnel of the Second Boer War Canadian geologists Canadian military personnel of World War I Explorers of Canada People from Kirkland Lake People from Sleaford, Lincolnshire 1876 births 1951 deaths Canadian prospectors The Globe and Mail founders 20th-century Canadian newspaper publishers (people)