More about John S. Gray

John has known grave but is remembered on the Le Touret Memorial. He was the son of Mr & Mrs Charles Gray.

John Gray   638   1st Seaforth Highlanders

LOCHEE SOLDIER LOSES HIS LIFE

IN THE HOTTEST OF THE FIGHTING.

Lance-Corporal John Gray, a Lochee soldier, has fallen at the front.  He belonged to the 1st Seaforth Highlanders, and the intimation of his death is conveyed in a letter which has reached his father, Mr Charles Gray, 21 Kerr’s Lane, Lochee, from the Rev. Mr Leith, chaplain to the Seaforths. Lance-Corporal Gray went to France as a member of the Indian Expeditionary Force, and his regiment proceeded at once to the fighting line. The Rev. Mr Leith states that Lance-Corporal Gray was killed in the heavy fighting in the trenches in which the Seaforths were engaged between 19th and 22nd December.  “The regiment has done very nobly.” Says the chaplain, “especially in these operations where Lance-Corporal Gray was lost.  We are proud of all the men, but proudest of those who are not with the regiment to know how its work has been appreciated.  I know you, too, while you mourn, will be proud of the memory of your son and the death he has died at the very front in the hottest of the fighting.”  Mr Gray has other three sons and a son-in-law with the colours.  Lance-Corporal Gray, who was 25 years of age, had been in the Seaforth Highlanders for over four years, and prior to enlistment he followed the occupation of a mill worker in Lochee and also worked as a miner at Lochgelly.  He was a prominent player in St Leonard’s F.C., a prominent junior club in Lochee a few years ago.  Intimation of Lance-Corporal Gray’s death has also been officially made by the War Office, and the date is given as 20th December, which was only two days after he had attained his twenty-fifth birthday.

Dundee Courier 19th January 1915