Henry Wray
WRAY, Henry RE CMG (1826-1900)
Henry Wray was born at Demerara, South America, on January 1, 1826. Demerara is an historical county of British Guiana. He was the son of Demerara Chief Justice, Charles Wray and his wife, Mary Wray (nee Pitts). His father retired as Chief Justice in 1835 but died a year later. By 1841 Henry Wray was in England.
Wray studied at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich and being one of the top four graduates in his year was appointed to the Royal Engineers with the rank of Second Lieutenant on December 20, 1843. He was also awarded the prize in Surveying for his year. His initial posting was for professional study at Chatham and then in December 1844 to Woolwich.
His first distant posting was to Ireland in March 1845 followed by a posting to Gibraltar from May 1846 to September 1850. On May 18, 1848 he married Mary Drinkwater, on Gibraltar. They had six children, one of whom, Alice, died on the voyage to Australia.
In September 1851 he, his wife and two children left Gravesend on the sailing ship “Anna Robertson” as one of sixteen cabin passengers with a further 210 passengers in steerage of whom 65 were sappers and miners. The ship arrived off Fremantle on December 17, 1851 and passengers were required to stay on board for a further six days due to whooping cough affecting six children.
Although only a Lieutenant, Wray was effectively Commanding Royal Engineer for Western Australia with specific responsibility for works in Fremantle. In February 1852 Wray had command of two officers, 15 non commissioned officers, 83 lance corporals and privates, and two buglers.
During September 1852, Wray was successful in assisting in recovering gold specie valued at £15,000 from the “//Eglington//”, wrecked 30 miles north of Fremantle, for which service he was later given a monetary reward and compensated for the loss of his horse which died from the strenuous riding involved.
Wray’s largest work was the Fremantle Prison, which he designed in conjunction with James Manning and Edmund Henderson. He proposed designs for Fremantle Port, did site investigations for Breaksea and Point King lighthouses at Albany, investigated iron production from local minerals and investigated producing gas for lighting from grass trees. He was also involved in the design of the Claise Brook drain with Lieutenant William Crossman.
Wray was also a talented water colourist and several of his paintings are in the Australian National Gallery. He was promoted to Second Captain on February 1854 and First Captain on October 29, 1856.
Wray was the Acting Comptroller General of Convicts from February 26, 1856 to February 1, 1858 whilst Edmund Henderson was absent in England. On the return of Edmund Henderson, Wray sailed for England, via Columbo, on the “Nile"on February 4, 1858. His wife and two children had left on the “Dolphin” on March 2, 1857.
From January 1860 to June 1861 he was appointed a United Kingdom commissioner and tasked with delineating the boundary between British Honduras and Guatemala as well as surveying a road to link the coast of British Honduras to Guatemala City. This involved surveying, mapping and erecting limestone pyramids to mark the agreed border though challenging terrain with a hostile population.
He was Commanding Royal Engineer, Japan, from December 1863 to June 1865 then returning to England became Commanding Royal Engineer at Weymouth. From 1866 to 1874 he was Superintendent of the Architecture Course at Chatham. He was then Commanding Royal Engineer, Malta, from July 1874 to June 1879, with drainage works being a major project. He then became Commanding Royal Engineer, Ireland, from 1879 to 1882. From October 1882 to November 1887 he was the Lieutenant Governor of Jersey, in the Channel Islands.
Wray retired from the army, with the rank of Lieutenant General, on November 5, 1887 after almost 44 years of service. He had been awarded the CMG on May 24, 1879.
Wray died on April 6, 1900 at Bournemouth, England aged 74.
References:
Alexandra Hasluck, "Royal Engineer, a life of Sir Edmund Du Cane", Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1973
https:sappers minerswa.com/officers/wray henry/ accessed January 12, 2020
John Le Page, "Building a State", Water Authority of Western Australia, Leederville, 1986
The Inquirer and Commercial News, 23.7.1879, p3
Cesar E Ross, The Belize Guatemala Issue, University of Belize
Western Mail, 17.1.1952, p15
