 Although born in Elsecar, Yorkshire to Frederick Liddell Wrightson and Jessie Arline Hague, Wrightson was raised in Essex where his family moved to when his father took up a teaching position in the county.It was in Grays that he was educated at Palmer's School, going from there to Loughborough University.His father first introduced Wrightson to cricket when he was a child, according to Wrightson had made him, along with his brothers bat as left-handers.