Thelma Ola Meredith
F, #16627, b. 20 September 1908
Parents
Biography
- Birth: 20 September 1908; Peterborough, Ontario
- Note: Birth reg'n #40173: family resided at 182 Loch St., Peterborough; Thomas was a salesman.
- Last Edited: 8 October 2009 01:00:00
Gladys A. Meredith
F, #16628, b. April 1901
Parents
Biography
- Birth: April 1901; Ontario
- Last Edited: 8 October 2009 01:00:00
Beatrice I. Meredith
F, #16629, b. September 1902
Parents
Biography
- Birth: September 1902; Ontario
- Last Edited: 8 October 2009 01:00:00
Dr. Sarah Gray
F, #16630, b. 1859, d. 1941
Parents
Biography
- Note: Biography:
DR Sarah Gray, the city's first woman doctor, has an honourable place in Nottingham medical history.
Born in Tipperary in 1860, she was determined to pursue a medical career during an era when it was considered eccentric, if not improper, for women to follow such a course.
She studied in London but at that time no degrees were granted to women. So in 1888 she went to Edinburgh to take a Scottish conjoint qualification.
Three years later she settled down in Nottingham as the first woman doctor to undertake general practice in the city.
Despite her obvious ability and caring manner, she encountered bitter opposition.
Women doctors were not wanted – except perhaps by women patients – and certainly not by the profession. So Sarah's early years were bleak and discouraging. But in 1899 she was elected to her first public appointment – she became assistant surgeon in charge of outpatients at Nottingham Women's Hospital. The position was then called chloroformist.
Most of her male colleagues viewed her with distrust. For a year one of them insisted on being present whenever she administered an anaesthetic, eager to discover and proclaim some negligence or inefficiency. She disappointed him.
When she applied for the post of consulting surgeon in charge of inpatients, her suitability could not be questioned.
Yet some excuse had to be found for keeping her out. She was told that her qualifications, the highest open to women when she took them, were not high enough.
Undaunted, at the age of 40, she undertook further study to become a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. The opposition was cowed, and in 1902 she became one of the hospital's two most highly qualified members of the staff.
At that time, the Women's Hospital was based in two splendid Georgian houses at 29-31 Castle Gate before moving to purpose-built premises in Peel Street in 1919.
Dr Gray became surgeon to the Nottingham and Notts Convalescent Home and medical examiner to the Board of Education and the Nottingham Education Committee, where her outstanding ability and her sense of duty carried the day.
Her other attributes – a compassionate approach, sense of humour, volcanic energy and her lilting Irish brogue – made her a popular figure on the wards and clinics.
Sarah even mastered the early motor car.
In 1921/22 she became the first woman to be elected president of the Nottingham Medico-Chirurgical Society.
She had many interests in the city where she practiced for 37 years. Temperance, foreign missions, rescue work and social reform were all topics assured of her support.
She was an eloquent speaker and contributed to articles in the medical press. Her life was rich and full and when she died in 1941, her loss was keenly felt.
Former Lady Mayoress, Mrs Hilda Hanson, recalled in 1955: "Dr Gray was a familiar sight, driving down Park Row from the General Hospital in her open victoria (a light four wheeled carriage with a collapsible top and seats for two passengers and a raised driver's seat).
"She was a little woman with very bright eyes and wore steel rimmed spectacles. She always wore a grey costume, perhaps so she was deliberately unobtrusive.
"In those days there was a tremendous prejudice against women as doctors, and for years she had an uphill climb against it."
The First World War did much to break down that prejudice – six women doctors did excellent work caring for injured soldiers and other patients at the General Hospital.
The story of Dr Sarah Gray is among the many fascinating articles and evocative photographs being compiled by local historian Paul Swift. He has opened a Community Facebook account on the history of Nottingham's Hospital.
Paul, author of books on the Nottingham Medico-Chirurgical Society and the history of the City Hospital, says: "The project is still in its early stages but I am keen to generate public interest. I have published just a few of the many photographs in the archive located at the City Hospital.
Type Nottingham Hospitals History into the Facebook search bar and you will be automatically directed to the page.
A letter from Dr. Sarah Gray, written in London, England, 2 March 1913 is trasncribed and can be
- Last Edited: 28 November 2011 00:00:00
Richard Gray
M, #16631, b. 17 July 1844, d. 7 January 1898
Parents
Biography
- Birth: 17 July 1844; Queen's county, Ireland
- Christening: 20 October 1844; Maryborough, Queen's county, Ireland
- Death: 7 January 1898; San Francisco, California
- Note: Baptism record from Church of Ireland register; family posted on ancestry: ;
- Last Edited: 4 February 2011 00:00:00
Frederick Thomas Gray
M, #16632, b. 22 July 1848
Parents
Biography
- Birth: 22 July 1848; Queen's county, Ireland
- Christening: 20 January 1849; Maryborough, Queen's county, Ireland
- Note: Baptism record gives name as Frederick Thomas. Possibly the Fred W. Gray found in USA censuses as follows?
1880 census: F.W. Gray, Omaha, Nebraska, age 29, lumber merchant, born Ireland, father born England, mother born Ireland; wife Kate L. 29, born Ohio; children Richard M. 5, Herbert 3, Winnifred 10 mos (born Aug)
1900: Fred W. Gray, Chicago, Illinois, 49, born Dec. 1850, married 25 years, immigrated 1870, lumber dealer; wife Kate L.; children Richard 24, Herbert L. 23, Winifred 21, Roger 19, Katherine 17.
- Note: Kate L.; Had been married for 25 years in 1900.
- Last Edited: 4 February 2011 00:00:00
Henry Alexander (Harry) Gray
M, #16633, b. about 1850, d. after 1930
Parents
Biography
- Birth: About 1850; Ireland
- Note: In 1880 Henry (29) was living in Chicago, Illinois, with his wife (35) and children Leslie J. (3), Dora L. (2) and Malcolm (11 mos, born June). Henry was a bookkeeper with the C. & N.W. Railroad Co. In 1900 they had moved to St. Paul, Minnesota. (There Henry is said to have been born in April 1860, but I feel confident that it should have been 1850. Somebody goofed! In 1905 he is said to be 53, in 1920 he is 67 and in 1930 he is 77.) They were also in St. Paul in 1905; in 1920 Henry is a widower, and an accountant with a railroad.
In 1922 he applied for a passport to travel to . He was described as: moustached, 6' tall, high forehead, grey hair, grey eyes, fair complexion, large nose. He indicated he had been born in Roscrea, Ireland 28 April 1852, that his father James Gray was deceased, that he had entered the USA in 1872, sailing from Queenstown 24 October 1872. He was planning to visit relatives and travel in the British Isles, sailing from Quebec on the Empress of India, departing July 5, 1922. By 1930 Henry had moved to Detroit, where he lived with his daughter Dora and her family. Then he is said to be retired.
- Note: Anna M. (Annie) Ridler; Marriage record indexed online : license number 00022688.
- Last Edited: 28 November 2010 00:00:00
James Gray
M, #16634, b. 15 March 1847, d. 28 May 1901
Parents
Biography
- Birth: 15 March 1847; Queen's county, Ireland
- Christening: 23 May 1847; Maryborough, Queen's county, Ireland
- Death: 28 May 1901; London, England
- Note: In the mid 1870s James ran the following ad in the Irish Times:
JAMES GRAY, JUN'S
MACHINE PRINTING OFFICE
PAPER AND STATIONERY WAREHOUSE
AND
Emigration and Advertising Agency
Market Square, Roscrea
In 1891 the family was living at 6 Bury(?) Rd, Tottenham, Middlesex, England: James 44 was a "Printers' reader & Editor", Sarah J. 42, Charlotte L. 15, Lucretia 13, Margaret S. 11 and mother-in-law Margaret Dimond, 73, widow. In
1901 James 54, Sarah 53 and Margaret S. 21 were living at 30 Alexandra Rd, Hornsey, Middlesex county, England. James' occupation appears to be "Corrector for the press".
The Kildare Observer of 1 June 1901 announced the death in London of James Gray on 28 May, 1901, third son of James Gray, aged 54 years.
- Last Edited: 4 February 2011 00:00:00
Mary Ann Gray
F, #16635, b. 1855, d. 1916
Parents
Biography
- Note: Mary and her husband appear to have separated some time in the 1890s. In 1901 they were living apart and shortly after that Benjamin and their son emigrated to Canada. In 1888 Mary was on the Executive Committee of The Committee of the Bristol Women's Liberal Association, and was among those who signed a letter of support to the International Council of Women assembled by the National Woman Suffrage Association of the United States, being held in Washington, DC March 25 to April 1, 1888.
There is a death registration for a Mary A. Ralph, age 61 in June 1916 in Hammersmith, England.
- Note: Benjamin Armitage Ralph; Marriage registered 1873, Roscrea district, Tipperary, Ireland, for both Benjamin Ralph and Mary Anne Gray. (Film #101252, Vol. 13, Page 445)
- Last Edited: 17 October 2009 01:00:00
Robert Wallace Gray
M, #16636, b. 1857
Parents
Biography
- Birth: 1857; Roscrea, Ireland
- Death: Callistoga, Napa, California
- Note: Tewid Tree on Ancestry has birth year 1847, born Roscrea. However, his age is given as 63 in 1920, immigrated in 1869. He was a locomotive engineer in 1920. Family tree prepared by the Bellman family gave his name as Wallace, so he may have been known by his middle name?
- Last Edited: 15 October 2009 01:00:00
Frances Ralph Gray
F, #16637, b. 9 July 1861, d. 10 November 1935
Parents
Biography
- Birth: 9 July 1861; Ireland
- Death: 10 November 1935; England
- Note: Frances Ralph Gray was born on 9th July 1861, the youngest child of James and Sarah Gray. She was named for a family friend [and sponsor at her baptism?], Frances Ralph, wife of James Ralph, a farmer who was also clerk and returning officer of Borrisokane Union. Frances was educated at home and at a small private school in Roscrea run by two ladies. She later wrote in idyllic terms of family life in the Gray household. Her mother Sarah died in January 1876 when Frances was fourteen. Her older sister Mary Anne had married Benjamin Ralph, son of Frances and James, in 1873 and was living at Launceston in Cornwall where he was principal of Dunheved College. Frances appears to have been sent to the Ralph household, perhaps in 1877, where she may have been tutored by her brother-in-law. In January 1878 she was among the first students enrolled in Plymouth High School, established with the encouragement of William Temple, then Bishop of Exeter and later Archbishop of Canterbury. By 1880 she was at Newnham College, Cambridge, where in 1882 she took a first class with distinction in three groups of the Cambridge Higher Local Examination, namely English history and literature, Latin and Greek, and political economy and constitutional history. Frances was the only woman examined to achieve a distinction in Greek. She had great difficulty with mathematics, particularly algebra, but managed to achieve a pass, “not by reasoning but by remembering.” Women students could attend lectures and sit for examinations, but they were not admitted to degrees. Frances was subsequently admitted Master of Arts at Trinity College, Dublin.
In 1883 Frances became a lecturer in classics at Westfield College at Kidderpore Avenue, Hampstead, which was a constituent college of the University of London from 1882. The university was at that time an examining body only and its examinations were open to all comers, regardless of where they studied. For about three of her Westfield years Frances lived in Hyde Park Mansions, one of the earliest blocks of flats in London, with her father, recently retired Clerk of the Union in Roscrea, and her sister Sarah, then a student at the Royal Free Hospital. She returned to live at Westfield when Sarah took up the practice of medicine in Nottingham. In 1894 she learnt that a junior preparatory school was to be established for St. Leonard’s at St. Andrews in Scotland. She doubted whether she would be offered this post since she had no experience of teaching young children. However, she applied successfully and became the first headmistress of St. Katherine’s. She wrote of this period:
The music of the school occupied a good deal of my attention all through my nine years at St. Katherine’s, and I am glad to record this because a great deal of happiness during my later life has come to me through school music. I found an excellent mistress who had studied at Frankfurt under Clara Schumann. When my first piano mistress left, I supplied her place by another Schumann pupil.
Frances also encouraged sports and crafts such as bookbinding. A visitor to the school, Lady Ritchie, daughter of William Makepeace Thackeray, wrote about St. Katherine’s in her book, Blacksticks Papers, published in 1908:
The headmistress has views of her own about education, which to her mind should not be only abstract but practical; she believes in manual occupations as well as in mental algebra, in gardening, in bookbinding, in carpentering for girls as well as boys, and all these form part of the course.
Frances remained at St. Katherine’s until 1903, when she began to look for another opportunity. Her attention was caught by an advertisement in the Spectator seeking a head mistress for a new school to be opened at Brook Green in Hammersmith, St. Paul’s Girls’ School, a counterpart of St. Paul’s School for boys founded in 1509 by John Colet, Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral, and placed by him under the trusteeship of the Mercers’ Company of London. Frances was one of sixty-seven applicants for the position. She said of herself that she “had a habit of taking a share in the beginning of things.” St. Paul’s Girls’ School opened unofficially on 19th January 1904 and was formally opened on 15th April by the Prince and Princess of Wales (later King George V and Queen Mary). As first High Mistress of St. Paul’s Frances recruited teaching staff of a high calibre. Three came with her from St. Katherine’s, two of whom had been students of hers at Westfield. She believed that teachers should be very well paid on an incremental scale and generally well treated. Within a few years she had persuaded the board of governors to establish a residence for teachers and a pension scheme. First-class school facilities were provided, including a swimming pool and an all-weather playing field.
As a distinguished academic herself, Frances had a broad view of the constituents of a good education. She was opposed to the competitive examination system and did not believe any subject should be compulsory for university entry. She wrote in a letter of 1925, “I should like the parents to realise that while we shall certainly send many of our girls to University and equip them in various ways for earning a living, they need not be afraid to trust us to give them the refinements of life.” Music was of course one of these refinements. In 1905 she secured the appointment of Gustav Holst as singing teacher at St. Paul’s. Holst was then a relatively unknown musician whose performing career as a trombonist was curtailed by physical ailments. Initially he taught singing; then he was asked to form a school orchestra. His musical composition was strongly encouraged by Frances. In 1909 she supplied the text and he the music for a masque, The Vision of Dame Christian, based on the life of the mother of John Colet. It was performance in the school only but a recording of this work is available today. They worked together again in 1912 when Holst wrote Two Psalms for chorus, string orchestra and organ, using a paraphrase of the traditional text by Frances. He began work during the First World War on his most successful work, The Planets, and was assisted by his students who copied the various parts and no doubt played them in the school orchestra as they took shape. The last of the seven parts, Neptune, requires a female choir, which was naturally supplied by St. Paul’s at the first performance in the Queen’s Hall on 29th September 1918.
A new music wing was added to the school in 1913 which included a room in which Holst could work undisturbed. Holst’s daughter Imogen, in her biography of her father, stated: “It was a place where he could compose in unbroken silence and solitude. He was given a large sound-proof room for his work. It had double windows, and two pianos, and a writing desk that was wide enough for the widest full score, and a system of central heating that sent the thermometer shooting up to heights rivalling the deserts of Algeria. On week-days he would be teaching in it. But on Sundays, when the school was locked up, it would be all his own, and he would write, and write, and write.” Holst had encouraged the girls of St. Paul’s to play not only strings and piano but wind instruments. The first piece he wrote in this room was St. Paul’s Suite for Strings, dedicated to his pupils. He added a score for wind instruments to allow others to join in.
Frances was extremely happy in her role as High Mistress. She is known to have had a commanding presence and beautiful enunciation, an accomplishment she admired in her mother. She enjoyed good relations with staff and students, many of whom kept in contact with her long after their schooldays. Honours of various kinds were heaped upon her. She was an associate of Newnham from 1910 to 1925, President of the Association of Head Mistresses from 1923 to 1925, President of the Association of University Women Teachers in 1921-22 and President of Newnham College Roll from 1931 to 1934. In 1920 she was appointed Justice of the Peace for the County of London and became particularly interested in the work of the juvenile court. She was among those on the King’s Birthday Honours list in 1926 when she was awarded the Order of the British Empire.
Frances enjoyed travelling abroad during the summer, visiting continental Europe many times and also her extended Gray and Meredith relatives in America. In 1888 she was part of a trio of ladies who went to Greece. Her first visit to America was in 1890 when, she says, “The time delightfully passed among the members of my large family who were very conveniently living in various places between New York and San Francisco. I was handed from one home to the other until I reached the Pacific Ocean.” While the building work on St. Paul’s was being completed, she visited schools in Belgium and Germany. She had previously visited several schools in France and had seen a little of educational life in the United States. It is not known how many times she crossed the Atlantic. Her last visit was probably in 1920 when she sailed from Antwerp to New York, probably with her sister Sarah, to whom she was close. She was about to take up her appointment as a justice of the peace in the juvenile court and took the opportunity to see how the equivalent juvenile justice system worked in San Francisco, Chicago, Pittsburgh and New York.
Frances retired from St. Paul’s on 6th April 1927 and was succeeded as High Mistress by a member of staff, Ethel Strudwick. Sarah and Frances lived together in their retirement at Churchside, Greyshott in Hampshire. It was to Sarah that Frances dedicated her book, And Gladly Wolde He Lerne and Gladly Teche, published in London in 1931. This work deals mainly with her philosophy of education, with a few biographical details.
Throughout her life Frances had a sense of social responsibility. She was involved in the settlement movement, which advocated that university-educated men and women should live among and befriend the poor and help to establish recreational and educational facilities in deprived areas such as east London. Women from Newnham and Girton were particularly involved. Frances became honorary secretary of the Women’s University Settlement Committee at Southwark and later led the establishment of Dame Colet House in Stepney which became a centre for social work. The Times reported on 24th March 1933:
The Duchess of York [later Queen Elizabeth] opened Frances Gray House, the first block of flats built by the Stepney Housing Trust, at Ocean Street, Stepney. The trust was sponsored, and the money for the land and building, £12,500, raised, by St. Paul's Girls' School, in connection with their scheme of social work carried out at Dame Colet House, Stepney.........
Miss Strudwick, High Mistress of St. Paul's School, presided at the opening ceremony, in the absence, through illness, of Miss Gray..... The flats were dedicated by the Bishop of Stepney........
The Duchess of York, in opening the flats, expressed her gratification at what was being done in Stepney to solve the housing problem.
Frances Gray House, and two other blocks, survived the bombing of 1940 which devastated East London.
Frances Ralph Gray died at home in Greyshott on 10th November 1935. A memorial service was held in St. Paul’s Cathedral on 23rd November. Her estate, valued at £1,450 was left to her sister Sarah. Her obituary was published in The Times of London, The Irish Times, and in the Tipperary newspaper, The Guardian of Nenagh.
St. Paul’s School for Girls is now among the leading schools in England, with a very high proportion of “Paulinas” entering Oxford and Cambridge.
Researched and compiled by A. Gray Robinson, Dublin, 2011
- Last Edited: 30 November 2011 00:00:00
Richard Drought
M, #16638
Biography
- Last Edited: 28 November 2010 00:00:00
Kate L.
F, #16639, b. July 1851
Biography
- Note: In 1900 indicated that she had given birth to 7 children, 5 of whom were still living.
- Note: Frederick Thomas Gray; Had been married for 25 years in 1900.
- Last Edited: 13 October 2009 01:00:00
Richard M. Gray
M, #16640, b. December 1875
Parents
Biography
- Birth: December 1875; Nebraska
- Marriage: About 1901; Anna S.; Illinois
- Note: In 1900 was a book-keeper in a hotel in Chicago; living with his parents. In 1910 he was the Proprietor of the Chicago Beach Hotel, 51st Street and Lake Michigan.
In 1920 Richard was the Manager of the [Lassen?] Hotel in Wichita, Kansas; he is listed as married, but it was a challenge to find Anna--she is listed under a different household number, at the very end after the names of the servants employed in the hotel!
- Note: Anna S.; In 1910 had been married for 9 years; no children
- Last Edited: 13 October 2009 01:00:00
Herbert L. Gray
M, #16641, b. March 1877
Parents
Biography
- Birth: March 1877; Nebraska
- Note: Living with parents in Chicago in 1900; occupation private secretary.
The 1910 census has Herbert living with his widowed father-in-law, Dr. Wm Downey; the Downeys came to the USA in 1892; Herbert is a manager with a steel corporation. In 1920 and 1930, he was living in Evanston, Illinois, manager for steel company; daughter Lydia remains with family, no other children.
In May 1922 Herbert served as a witness when his uncle Henry Gray applied for a passport. Herbert said he was District Sales Manager of Weirton Steel Co. and gave his address as 425 Kedzie St, Evanston, Illinois.
- Note: Edyth L. Downey; Had been married for 7 years in 1910
- Last Edited: 17 October 2009 01:00:00
Winifred Gray
F, #16642, b. August 1878
Parents
Biography
- Birth: August 1878; Nebraska
- Note: In 1900 living with her parents in Chicago, occupation stenographer
- Last Edited: 13 October 2009 01:00:00
Roger Gray
M, #16643, b. May 1881, d. 20 January 1959
Parents
Biography
- Birth: May 1881; Nebraska
- Death: 20 January 1959; Los Angeles, California
- Note: Living with parents in Chicago in 1900; occupation express messenger. Haven't found him in 1910 or 1920.
In 1930 Roger was a theater actor living in Los Angeles; he was 48 and had been 22 when he first married, indicating that Jessie must have been a second wife. Father incorrectly said to have been born in Northern Ireland (vs the Irish Free State).
California death records show a Roger Gray, born Nebraska, died 20 January 1959 in Los Angeles, age not stated.
Brief biography found using Google:
Born: May 26, 1887 in Omaha, NE; died 20 January 1959
"A tall (6'2"), gangly supporting actor onscreen from the early '30s, Roger Gray played James Cagney's sailor pal in the "Shanghai Lil" number in Footlight Parade (1933) and was Celano, a Philippine bandit masquerading as a sailor (named "Brooklyn," no less), in Come on Marines (1934). Those were perhaps the highlights of a career mainly constituted by unbilled, bit roles as cops, military officers, small-time gangsters, and even the occasional sheriff (Oh, Susannah!, 1936). Gray made his final screen appearance in yet another unbilled bit part in Gaslight (1944). He also appeared on television in the early '50s, and made his final screen appearance in 1958's Gang War. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide"
See full listing of all 85 films (many uncredited) at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0336919/
The problem with this is that these biographical bits all say he was born May 1887, whereas early census records have him born May 1881. But as all refer to Nebraska birth I think the 1887 was a mistake, perhaps on purpose? it's not hard to change a numeral 1 to a 7!
- Last Edited: 13 October 2009 01:00:00
Katherine Gray
F, #16644, b. January 1883
Parents
Biography
- Birth: January 1883; Nebraska
- Note: Living with parents in Chicago in 1900; no occupation stated.
- Last Edited: 13 October 2009 01:00:00
Edyth L. Downey
F, #16645, b. about 1878
Biography
- Birth: About 1878; Canada
- Note: Daughter of Dr. Wm Downey, only 1 child after 7 years of marriage.
- Note: Herbert L. Gray; Had been married for 7 years in 1910
- Last Edited: 13 October 2009 01:00:00
Lydia St. J. Gray
F, #16646, b. about 1906
Parents
Biography
- Birth: About 1906; Illinois
- Last Edited: 13 October 2009 01:00:00
Anna S.
F, #16647, b. about 1876
Biography
- Last Edited: 13 October 2009 01:00:00
Jessie M.
F, #16648, b. about 1901
Biography
- Birth: About 1901; Oklahoma
- Note: In 1930 Jessie was 29; she had been 15 when she first married.
Family: Roger Gray (b. May 1881, d. 20 January 1959)
- Last Edited: 13 October 2009 01:00:00
Mary S.
F, #16650, b. August 1842
Biography
- Last Edited: 14 October 2009 01:00:00