Gray was born on 29 December 1845 in
Dublin, the second son of
Sir John Gray and his wife, Anna Dwyer. After receiving his education, he joined his father in managing the ''
Freeman's Journal, the oldest nationalist newspaper in Ireland. When his father died in 1875, Gray took over proprietorship of the Journal'', and his family's other newspaper properties such as the
Belfast Morning News and the Dublin
Evening Telegraph. In 1868, Gray saved five people from drowning in a wrecked schooner at
Killiney Bay, an action for which he received the Tayleur Fund Gold Medal for bravery from the
Royal Humane Society. By coincidence, the rescue was witnessed by his future wife,
Caroline Agnes Gray, whom he would meet shortly afterwards. Agnes was the daughter of
Caroline Chisholm (an English humanitarian renowned for her work in female immigrant welfare in Australia), and although Gray was descended from a
Protestant family, he converted to
Catholicism to marry her. The wedding in London on 17 July 1869 was conducted by the Bishop of Northampton. The couple had one son,
Edmund Dwyer-Gray, who would take over from his father as proprietor of his newspapers and would go on to become
Premier of Tasmania. == Political career ==