In 1940, Wright was posted to the British embassy in Bucharest, then left Romania in 1941 when the country joined the Axis Powers and ended relations with Britain.

Wright was then transferred to Turkey, where he served as vice-consul in Trabzon, earning a commendation from the embassy in Ankara, and in 1943, he was appointed acting consul in the port city of Mersin.

[1] At the end of World War II, Wright returned to London where he worked for the Ottoman Bank, however he soon resigned and joined the British Foreign Service.

In 1953, he was sent to Iran to re-open the British embassy there, after the overthrow of Mohammad Mosaddegh's government in a coup d'etat, which began his long association with the country.

[3] In May 1979, Wright was asked by Sir Anthony Parsons of the Foreign Office to carry out a covert mission due to his close relationship with the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who had just been deposed in the Iranian Revolution.