[3] He also made a total of 105 appearances for England, captaining them a record 90 times, including during their campaigns at the 1950, 1954 and 1958 World Cup finals.

[4] Wright was born at 33 Belmont Road,[5] Ironbridge, Shropshire, his father Thomas was a worker at the Coalbrookdale Company ironworks.

[6] After playing during March–April that year for Cradley Heath in a dual player-groundsman role,[6] Wright's association with Wolverhampton Wanderers began in 1938 when, after being encouraged by his school teacher to respond to a newspaper advertisement inviting boys for trials,[5] he was taken on as a member of their ground staff.

On 23 September 1939 Wright, who was then fifteen, played his first match for the Wolves senior side in a friendly against West Bromwich Albion.

A broken ankle put his career in doubt but he recovered and joined the Kings Shropshire Light Infantry in 1943, serving as a Physical Training Instructor.

He became club captain soon after and with Wright leading the team, Wolves won the First Division title three times (1953–54, 1957–58 and 1958–59) as well as the FA Cup in 1949.

Initially Arsenal started strongly under Wright, finishing seventh in 1962–63 and qualifying for Europe for the first time in their history, but failed to build on this.

Football writer Brian Glanville, discussing Billy Wright's time at Arsenal, wrote: "he had neither the guile nor the authority to make things work and he reacted almost childishly to criticism".

In 2009, English football agent Bryan Yeubrey began a public campaign to obtain a posthumous knighthood for Wright.