Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (Civil) M.B.E.; Territorial Officers Decoration EVIIR with T.& A.V.R. top bar reverse dated 1971; Cadet Forces Medal QEIIR (THE REV P GRAY TD CF3 ACF)
M.B.E. London Gazette 31 December 1993: ‘For political and public service.’
The following obituary appeared for The Reverend Percy Gray on SE16.com, 21 June 2014:
‘The Revd. Percy Gray, vicar of St. Crispin’s Church in Southwark Park Road for four decades, has died at the age of 86.
A prominent local Tory activist, he was president of the Bermondsey & Old Southwark Conservative Association. In his latter years he stood for election as Conservative candidate in Riverside Ward in 2006 and in Rotherhithe Ward in 2010.
Ordained in 1956, he was inducted as vicar of St. Crispin’s Bermondsey on the day the rebuilt post-war church was dedicated in 1959. When he retired in 1999 the church was closed and the building is now a nursery.
In the early 1960s he was locked in a bitter dispute with the left-leaning Bishop of Southwark Mervyn Stockwood who refused to visit St. Crispin’s parish. The row was reported by newspapers as far afield as Sydney, Australia.
Known as the ‘Parachuting Parson’, Mr Gray took an active part in the life of the Territorial Army unit to which he was chaplain of the 10th Battalion, The Parachute Regiment (V) ,10 PARA (V) for short . Following changes to the Territorial Army in 1967, the battalion extended its geographical presence in the 1970s and 80s and at its height operated from the following locations: Chelsea (HQ Coy, 4 Coy & 5 Coy); White City (1 Coy); Croydon and Blackheath (2 Coy); Finchley (3 Coy); Aldershot (Support Coy); Portsmouth (Anti-Tank Platoon); and Leigh-on-Sea (Mortar Platoon).
In 1989 the battalion became part of the newly formed Parachute Regiment Group (PRG), an ad-hoc Regimental Headquarters grouping with the other two TA battalions which had a British Army Of the Rhine reinforcement role. The battalion also committed individual reinforcements to the three regular parachute battalions on operations in various parts of the world from Northern Ireland beginning in 1969 onwards.
In the 1990s reductions in the battalion's size resulted in the disbandment of 1 Coy at White City, 5 Coy and later the Portsmouth and Leigh-on Sea detachments. Eventually, following a Strategic Defence Review, 10 PARA was disbanded in June 1999, with one company transferring to 4 PARA(V), the sole remaining TA PARA Battalion.
In 1971 Gray jumped from London Bridge - then under reconstruction - to demonstrate a new shock-absorber safety line made by a factory to which he also served as chaplain. In 1985 he ran the London Marathon.
As part of the Campaign to Restore Capital Punishment he lobbied MPs at Westminster in 1970 to bring back hanging. His unscheduled clash with Methodist minister Lord Soper was broadcast to the nation on ITN’s News at Ten.
1990 his role as a governor of Bacon’s College resulted in High Court action by the Inner London Education Authority and Southward Council in a bid to prevent the school becoming a city technology college (CTC).
A supporter of Sunday trading, Mr Gray received cheers for his speech at the Conservative Party conference in Brighton in 1992.
In the 1994 New Year’s Honours list he received the MBE for political and public service.
In retirement he enrolled as a student at Southwark College to pick up new IT skills. It wasn’t until 2012 that he stepped down as the local organiser of the Royal British Legion’s poppy appeal in Bermondsey and Rotherhithe.’
The medals are in good condition unless otherwise indicated. Sold with copy newspaper articles highlighting aspects of his life.
