McKEE WRIGHT David

McKEE WRIGHT David (6 August 1869 – 5 February 1928) was an Irish-born poet, journalist and clergyman, active in New Zealand and Australia. David Wright was educated at the local Glascar School and then from 1876 in England at Mr Pope's School and the Crystal Palace School of Engineering, London. Wright migrated to New Zealand in 1887 and spent several years as a rabbiter on stations in Central Otago. During this time he wrote in both prose and verse for major provincial newspapers about station life. In 1897 Wright was awarded a Stuart prize for poetry. Wright published four volumes of ballads, Aorangi and other Verses (1896), Station Ballads and other Verses (1897), Wisps of Tussock (1900), and New Zealand Chimes (1900).

Wright moved to Sydney in 1910 and did a large amount of successful freelance work for the Sun, The Bulletin, and other papers. As Wright grew older his mind turned more and more to the country of his birth, he published his most important volume, An Irish Heart (1918). In 1920 he was awarded the prize for the best poem in commemoration of the visit of the Prince of Wales, and in the same year the Rupert Brooke memorial prize for a long poem, "Gallipoli". A large amount of his work, including some short plays, has never been collected.