Gray was born on 12 July 1854, in
Ripley, Derbyshire, the son of a
Baptist minister. In 1860, his family moved to
Hebden Bridge, and Gray was educated at the town's grammar school. Gray left school at the age of thirteen and worked as a clerk for the
Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. He was interested in the co-operative movement, and so in 1874, became the assistant secretary of the Hebden Bridge Fustian Society, a full-time post. He proved successful in the role, and was promoted to become the organisation's general secretary before he had even spent six months in the post. In 1906, Gray proposed that the various retail co-operatives in the United Kingdom combine and be ran by an elected general council of 150 members; this proposal was not accepted. He retired in 1910, due to failing health, and died on 24 February 1912, aged 57, in
Manchester. ==References==