#15169, William Ernest GRAY

The youngest of Matthew and Agnes Gray’s children, Bill, as he was known, was born in Scotland. After the family’s move to London in 1866, he attended Cambridge House School, Blackheath, then aged fourteen went to University College School as his brothers had. He learned French in Tours, then Spanish in Madrid with his brother Christian, before joining the family firm’s at the ‘Works’, Silvertown. As a young man he was a keen athlete winning several Lillie Bridge Ground Sports prizes, and was a rugby player.

He was one of the several inventors who worked to develop the incandescent light bulb, Joseph Swan’s invention in 1878. In 1881 aged 21 he attended the International Exhibition of Electricity, Paris representing IRGPTW Ltd, a member of the British Delegation. The India Rubber Gutta Percha Telegraph Works Limited by the 1890s was a supplier of electric generating plants to cities and towns both in the United Kingdom and on the Continent, manufacturing electrical machinery, batteries and instruments. Bill’s commissions included installing electricity to Brussels in 1892, in Hereford in 1899 and in 1906 the erection of electricity works and mains in Dumfries where he became the chairman of the Dumfries Electrical Supply Co. He was elected Member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers in 1890. In 1899 he was a founder member of the Cable Makers Association concerned with the standardisation of cables. He became an associate member of the Institute of Civil Engineers, a member of the French Electrician Society as well as Chairman of Model Conditions of Contract.

From a Times advertisement in 1912 “In addition to manufacturing cable and machinery the company also produced for sale a variety of electrical equipment...This comprised instruments for the Post-Office, War Office, Admiralty, Colonial and Foreign Governments and railway and cable companies all over the world. In 1913 Bill became Joint Managing Director with his brother Christian Hamilton Gray.

Bill entertained business clients at the Criterion, Piccadilly and it was there he met Edith Gertrude Pope from Gloucester. They married in London before his work for the next three years took him to Tours, France. Their daughter, Edith Mary Gray, initially registered as Maria, was born there and spoke French until she was three. Bill returned to Blackheath London with his family where he resumed his post in the Electric Light Department.

His principal hobby in later life was golf, when painful bouts of gout allowed, and he was a keen and prominent member of the Royal Blackheath Golf Club where he served as Captain as did his brother Christian. With Edith and Mary he enjoyed Shooting holidays in Scotland at Glenquaich with his father, brothers, cousins and business associates. From his I.E.E. Obituary ‘He was a good raconteur and a man hard to turn once his mind was made up, withal a hard fighter.’

Nicky Hibbin