Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Gray, Charles F.
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
Charles Frederick Gray was born December 17, 1879/1880 to James H. Gray and Harriet (Bernsden). He ran away to the sea in 1894, at the age of 13, while visiting family friends in Wales, eventually returning in 1897. He spent the three years as a midshipman apprentice officer on the clipper ship Oronsay, circumnavigating the globe three times, sailing around Cape Horn three times, and survived a 1897 shipwreck in the North Atlantic.
Gray moved to Canada in 1897, arriving via Steerage and Ellis Island. After working briefly in New York, he went to Nelson B.C. and worked at a smelter in a mine, studying electrical engineering at night through the International Correspondence School. Gray worked for various engineering firms in Canada, New York, and England, helping to install the first Otis Jenson electrical elevator at the Old Waldorf Astoria Hotel and supervised the transformation of the London underground trains from steam to electricity. In 1911 he was sent to Winnipeg to install the main power plant at Point du Bois, eventually going into business for himself as a Consulting Engineer.
Gray ran in four civic elections, was twice elected to the Board of Control on the City Council (1917-1918) and twice elected as Mayor of Winnipeg (1919 and 1920). Gray was Mayor of Winnipeg during the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919, standing firm during cries for a parade by the strikers, and surviving an attempt on his life.
Gray and his wife Edith Curran had three children, Charles Jr. (who died in 1925), Eileen, Avis, and Hubert (Hub). Following his time as Mayor, Gray returned to private life as a Consulting Engineer, and later founded The Cutty Sark Club, and the On-To-The-Bay Club, credited with the development of the Hudson Bay railway line. After 30 years in Winnipeg, the Grays moved to British Columbia where Gray became involved in mining ventures. He died in Victoria in June, 1954.