William Valentine Wright, born in 1826 in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, was a wholesale druggist and chemist who had a small business, W.V. Wright & Co. at 11 Old Fish Street Hill, Doctors' Commons, London. Now non-existent, Old Fish Street Hill south east of St Paul's Cathedral was the 14th century fish market, before Billingsgate (it is not the present-day Fish Street Hill by the Monument). Wright's business can be traced back to that of James Curtis & Co., a wholesale druggist at these premises since 1795.