 Wright attended Bristol Grammar School and Durham Medical School accepted him straight into the second year before he graduated in 1965 and proceeded to achieve two post-graduate degrees in pathology at Newcastle University.He was Professor of Pathology at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School at the Hammersmith Hospital, and then became the Dean of the Royal Postgraduate Medical School before becoming the Deputy Principal of the Imperial College School of Medicine in 1998.Sir Nicholas was Warden of Barts and The London from 2001 until 2009.