Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War 1917 ‘Western Front’ C.M.G. group of six awarded to Colonel W. L. Gray, Royal Army Medical Corps, who was Mentioned in Despatches for the Second Boer War and the Great War, and served as Assistant Director of Medical Services for both the 22nd and 2nd Division between 1915-17

The Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, C.M.G., Companion’s neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel, in Garrard & Co. Ltd. case of issue; India General Service 1895-1902, 1 clasp, Relief of Chitral 1895 (Surgn. Capt. W. L. Gray. A.M.S.); Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 4 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal, South Africa 1901 (Major W. L. Gray. M.B., R.A.M.C.) top lugs removed, minor edge bruise; 1914-15 Star (Lt. Col. W. L. Gray. R.A.M.C.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. Oak Leaves (Col. W. L. Gray.) campaign awards mounted as originally worn, generally good very fine (6) £800-£1,200

Provenance: Dix Noonan Webb, April 2001.

C.M.G. London Gazette 1 January 1917.

William Lewis Gray was born in London, 17 July 1864, the second son of Alexander Gray, M.D., of Selby. He was educated at Glasgow, where he graduated as M.B. and C.M. in 1885, and at Edinburgh, where he took the B.Sc. in Public Health in 1888.

Gray joined the Army Medical Service as a Surgeon in February 1887, and served on the Anglo-Siamese Boundary Commission of 1889-90; and on the Kieuglung-Chienghai Mission of 1890-91. He served on the North West Frontier in 1895, and during the Second Boer War in operations in the Transvaal, Orange River Colony, and Cape Colony (Mentioned in Lord Roberts’ despatch of 2 April 1901, London Gazette 16 April 1901).

Gray advanced to Major in the Royal Army Medical Corps in February 1899, and to Lieutenant Colonel in August 1911. He served during the Great War as Colonel, Assistant Director of Medical Services, 22nd Division, April - October 1915, and in the same capacity for the 2nd Division in the French theatre of war, October 1915 - January 1917 (C.M.G.; M.I.D. London Gazette 15 June 1916 and 4 January 1917).

Gray served as Officer Commanding, The Royal Herbert Hospital, Woolwich, January 1917 - August 1919. He transferred to the Reserve of Officers in August 1919, and retired from the latter in October 1921. Colonel Gray died of pneumonia at his home in North Holt, Hythe, Kent in November 1924.