Winifred Grace Wright

Hurst initially produced pharmaceuticals in a team working under Martha Whiteley (1866–1956), who was a prominent chemist at the Imperial College, London, and partly responsible for the development of mustard gas used during World War I.

During that period she married John Wright, a consultant on high-tension power lines, and raised a family of 3 daughters.

In 1949 she emigrated to South Africa where her husband was working for Eskom, the State electricity supplier, on power lines between Colenso and Durban.

The erection of pylons resulted in the destruction of numerous plants, and John Wright suggested that Winifred document those, but she soon found that there was very little in the way of reference literature.

Her frequent visits to the Durban Herbarium to identify plants sparked such an interest that she started research at the University of Natal into the chemistry of local flora, resulting in a Ph.D. in 1954.