Lieutenant-General Sir Michael Stuart Gray KCB, OBE

Lt Gen Sir Mike Gray was born in May 1932 in Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire. He was the eldest son of Lieutenant Frank Gray of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. Mike enlisted into the Royal Artillery in 1950  and was later commissioned into the East Yorkshire Regiment in 1952, spending his first two years with their 1st Battalion in the Malayan jungle during the Emergency.

Gray transferred to the Parachute Regiment in 1955 and went onto serve in Cyprus, Suez, Jordan, Bahrain, Aden, Radfan, Kenya and Northern Ireland. He completed parachute course 395 at RAF Abingdon from March 9, 1955 to March 31, 1955. On this course, 2 descents were done from balloon and 6 by aircraft, to qualify with a total of 8. The aircraft used was a Handley Page Hastings, and the dropping height was 800 ft. 

Gray served as Intelligence Officer of 2 PARA in Cyprus and during Operation Musketeer (invasion of the Suez Canal). Thereafter he went with 16th Parachute Brigade to Jordan to prevent an Iraqi invasion after the Baathists took control there. In the early 1960s, Gray was a company commander in 2 PARA and deployed to various parts of the Arabian peninsula, primarily to protect against the insurgent groups FLOSY and the NLF.  

His service appointments included Brigade Major of 44 PARA Brigade 1964-66, MoD Military Operations 1967-1969, Commanding Officer of 1 PARA 1969-71, Commander of 16 PARA Bde 1977-79 and Colonel Commandant of the Parachute Regiment from 1990-93. Gray was made CO of 1 PARA in March of 1969, and by August the Army had been deployed to Londonderry and Belfast. His stint as CO began with an emergency tour of Belfast. 

Mike Gray was a long standing Chairman of the Airborne Assault Normandy Trust and helped to create two museums in France. In recognition of these efforts he was awarded the French Legion d'Honneur in 1994. He also served as  Lieutenant of the Tower of London from 1995 to 1998.

He died in York Hospital on 13 March 2011.

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