James Goring Gerald Gray

Born in 1921, he was educated at Malvern College and Sandhurst and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in 1939, joining the 1st Battalion DLI in Egypt in 1940. He gained the Military Cross in October 1943 on Cos, when the Germans invaded the island and the defenders, including 1 DLI, were overwhelmed. He managed to escape with his men and hide for ten days in the hills until the group was evacuated by the Special Boat Squadron.

He won the Bar to his MC in December 1944, commanding "A" Company in a night attack under very heavy fire at Casa Bianca in Italy.

After the war, he served at the Depot and at Barnard Castle and with the King's African Rifles in Kenya from 1951-54. He retired, through ill health, as a Major in 1960 and entered the Prison Service.

James Gray was an Assistant Governor in Portland Prison when he was killed in a road accident in Hampshire in December 1979.