Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Nine: Surgeon Lieutenant-Commander E. E. D. Gray, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve

British War and Victory Medals (Surg. S. Lt. E. E. D. Gray, R.N.V.R.); Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Palestine 1936-39 (Surg. Lt. Cdr. E. E. D. Gray. R.N.V.R.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Decoration, G.VI.R., the reverse officially dated ‘1940’; Service Medal of the Order of St. John (D/Sgn. E. E. Gray. London S.J.A.B. 1953.) mounted as worn, generally good very fine and better (9) £700-£900

Provenance: Dix Noonan Webb, June 1997.

V.D. London Gazette 27 May 1940.
One of only four Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Decorations awarded in 1940.

Edward Emile Delisle Gray was born at Basseterre, St. Kitts, on 9 November 1895, the son of Dr S. G. Gray, a sometime Medical Officer of Southern Nigeria. He was educated at St Paul’s School, London, and in 1914 was awarded an Exhibition to Christ’s College, Cambridge, but owing to the outbreak of the Great War did not matriculate. Instead, he attempted to join the Army but was refused entry due to poor eyesight. He therefore went to Guy’s Hospital to study clinical medicine, having gained a scholarship. He was appointed Temporary Surgeon Probationer, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, on 8 March 1918, and served during the latter stages of the Great War in H.M.S. Martin.

Post-War, Gray settled into general practice in Teddington, and in 1933 was elected a member of the Royal College of Physicians. He was honorary medical officer to the Teddington Memorial Hospital and a police surgeon for ten years. In November 1935 he began a year of service in the Royal Navy, serving in H.M.S. Coventry and H.M. Hospital Ship Maine during the Abyssinian crisis, and was promoted Surgeon Lieutenant-Commander on 31 December 1937. During the Second World War he served in various ships and shore based establishments from October 1939 until April 1946, and was advanced Surgeon Commander. Post-War he re-entered general practice in Anerley, and was appointed Surgeon to the Norwood and Crystal Palace division of the St. John Ambulance Brigade. He also served as Chairman of the Ministry of Labour and National Service medical board at Croydon. He died on 12 May 1956.

He was awarded the R.N.V.R. Decoration in 1940, one of only four awarded during this year.

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