LevelItem
Finding NoWL/7/18
Extent21 pieces
TitleResearch file number 438 relating to Gunner Francis William Gray (1879-1917)
Date2015
DescriptionWork completed by volunteer includes the following information:

Gunner F W Gray, aged 38 and Second Master at St Mary’s Boys’ School in Beverley, died of unspecified wounds (exacerbated by pleurisy) at the 10th General Hospital in Rouen, France, on 10 May 1917. He is buried in the Saint Sever Cemetery Extension in the city. He was posthumously awarded the war and Victory Medals.

Francis arrived in France in Jul 1916 and served with the 35th Siege Battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery. He was probably involved in the Battle of Arras when wounded

Francis was born in Beverley the 21 Feb 1879. He was one of nine children and the second son to William and Naomi Gray (nee Morris) both of Beverley. The family home was in Love Lane (now The Woodlands), though Francis spent his teenage years living with his grandparents in Toll Gavel where they had a tailoring and drapery business. Francis attended St Mary’s Boys’ School, Cross Street. In the academic year 1893-94 he became a pupil teacher at the school and eventually obtained his teacher’s certificate (1st Class) and became Second Master.

Francis married Hilda Duggan at St Mary’s Church on 31 Oct 1903. They lived at various addresses in Beverley before moving to Fair View, Grovehill Road. They had six children, the youngest born in Dec 1916 whilst Francis was at the front. The oldest, William, born in 1906, was to become a merchant seaman.

Francis is remembered on the Grovehill Street Shrine, the Hengate Memorial and the East Riding Memorial in Beverley Minster

Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers
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