Frank Gray

Private Frank Gray

Private 5770222 Frank Robert Gray:
Royal Norfolk Regiment.
Died 27th May, 1940.
Aged 28.
Son of Arthur Bird Gray and Amy Gray; husband of Dorothy Gray, of Norwich.
Inscription - Greater love hath no man. He died that we might live.

Frank's grandson Kevin and son Terry with a treasured photograph.

WHEN Private Frank Gray died in the massacre at Le Paradis he left a wife and two young sons who knew nothing about their father.

Terence Gray was a toddler less than two years old when his father was killed and he has no memory of him: "I am 81 in November and never had a real dad, someone I could look up to and talk to," he told us in September 2019.

Terry and his son Kevin have pieced together some of Frank's life story over the years but there are many blanks that they have been unable to fill in.

"My mother didn't tell me much as I grew up and it wasn't until the 1950s that I learned what had happened through newspaper cuttings. I asked my mother and she said he had died in the war," Terry added.

Frank and Dorothy were living at Mill Road Cromer where their son Terry was born in November 1938. Frank worked in the town as a postman. Terry and Kevin believe Frank may have had two stints in the army (one of the photographs below of Frank taken in uniform in 1931 may support this) but are not sure whether he was a postman before joining up or in between his stints in the services.

The also know that Frank is commemorated in Cromer and West Runton Churches and also in Norwich Cathedral and they have travelled to Le Paradis to visit his grave and see where he died: "We stood on the spot where it happened and we just couldn't imagine what it was like," Terry said.

Terry and Kevin bear no grudges towards the SS soldiers who fired at the helpless British troops: "They were under orders and if they hadn't fired they would have been shot themselves."

"We have no idea what he was like as a person although we have a photograph of him with a golf club so presume that he enjoyed playing," Terry added.

Frank was born in Cromer on 15th April, 1912 ( a very fragile copy of his birth certificate is pictured opposite - click on it to enlarge).

It is likely that Frank met his future wife Dorothy at Britannia Barracks in Norwich. They were married at Lakenham in Norwich on 11th September, 1937, when Frank was 25 and Dorothy (nee Betts) 20. Frank's address is given as 19, Wyndham Park, Cromer, and Dorothy's as 22, Arnold Miller Road, Lakenham. At the time of Frank's death, Dorothy had two young boys to look after - Terry and his brother. Eventually she re-married. At some point the family moved back to Norwich to live in Arnold Miller Road. A copy of the couple's marriage certificate is included below.

Below are some of the photographs of Frank's certificates and medals and other official documents from Terry's private collection and we are indebted to him and Kevin for allowing us to reproduce them here.