bentley priory - Spink

September 6, 2012 - LONDON
Air Vice-Marshal A. Gray
C.B. London Gazette 8.6.1944 Air Commodore Alexander
Gray, M.C., Royal Air Force.
M.C. London Gazette 27.10.1917 2nd Lt. (T./Capt.)
Alexander Gray, Arg. & Suth’d Highrs., and R.F.C.
‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He took
part in many successful operations over the enemy’s lines, in
over twenty of which he acted as leader. On one occasion,
when leading a bombing raid, his formation was heavily
attacked by enemy aeroplanes. He shot one of them down,
and brought back the whole of his formation safely. He also
led a successful raid on an enemy aerodrome, and on several
occasions obtained valuable photographs. He has accounted
for two enemy aeroplanes with his front gun, and always
showed great coolness, ability, and resource.’
Air Vice-Marshal Alexander Gray, C.B., M.C., born
Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, September 1896, and educated at
Glasgow Technical College; on the outbreak of the Great
War he declined a Commission and enlisted as a Private in the
Highland Light Infantry, as ‘that was my best chance of
seeing some quick fighting.’ Commissioned Second
Lieutenant, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, he
transferred to the Royal Flying Corps in early 1916, serving
with No.55 Reconnaissance Squadron. Twice wounded, by a
shell splinter to the right hand, 14.1.1917, and by a gun shot
wound to the right hand, 1.3.1917, in December 1917,
having been awarded the M.C., Gray was appointed Flight
Commander of the Squadron.
In October 1922 Gray married Mrs. Leonora Mary Baxter,
the widow of Second Lieutenant E.F. Baxter, V.C., with
whom he had two daughters. The following year he was
posted to No.12 Squadron, based at RAF Northolt, before
moving to Malta in November 1928, where much of his
flying for the next year was testing aircraft for the Fleet Air
Arm at Hal Far and the seaplane base. At the start of the
Second World War he was promoted Group Captain and
appointed to the Station Command of RAF Manston, a
front-line airfield in the Battle of Britain. Subsequently, as Air
Commodore, he was posted to India in 1942, where he also
visited the forward areas of Burma. After the War he was
appointed, in April 1947, Air-Officer Commanding Air
Headquarters at Habbaninyah, Iraq, with the rank of Air
Vice-Marshal. He retired from the Royal Air Force in 1949,
and died 16.5.1980.
109