Exhibit : WWII propaganda bookmatches
Ed Wright (1947 – 2026) was born in Luton, Bedfordshire and attended Westminster College where he trained as a chef. His career allowed him to travel and work in seven different countries before emigrating to Canada in 1973. He worked in Jasper, Alberta in the Rockies for two years as well as Edmonton, Alberta and ended his career as a Professor at George Brown College in Toronto where he taught for 32 years. After retiring in 2019 Ed was able to spend more time catching up on his hobby.
Ed initially got into collecting as a schoolboy. A family friend and neighbour worked in the employee canteen at the Electrolux Plant and nearly every day she would bring him bags and bags of discarded matchboxes to sort for something to do during the school holidays. This certainly kept him occupied and began a life long interest. Over the years, Ed’s hobby expanded into other areas such as Match Box Labels, Matchbooks, Vesta Boxes, Strikers, Match Crates and miscellaneous Match Ephemera.
His greatest interest was in Foreign Made Labels, Wartime Propaganda, British Royalty, Airlines, as well as old Canadian Matchboxes especially those with Tax Stamps.
As a child, Ed was a very early member of the Trans Canada Match Club and when he arrived in Toronto he decided to re-join as the meetings were held close to his home. Ed told Pat Griffiths, one of the original founding members, and Pat gave him his old original number back which was quite an early one, and they used to meet up from time to time to trade and discuss new finds locally, which sadly had dwindled due to the decline in Canada of the popularity of matches.
After retiring Ed joined the Rathkamp Matchcover Society in the USA who hold a yearly convention and Ed attended many where he made friends willing to trade covers or boxes or information by post, as it was not always possible to go personally. Like many people, Ed found himself busier during retirement than when working.
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