Gray, Herbert

Title

Gray, Herbert
H M Gray
Bertie Gray

Description

13 items. The collection relates to the career of Sergeant Herbert M Gray (1593562 Royal Air Force), It contains his log book, three photographs, a handwritten account of his first flight, six letters he wrote to his wife between 28 June 1944 and 6 August 1944, and his medal ribbons. Herbert Gray was a flight engineer with 103 Squadron at RAF Elsham Wolds.

The collection was donated by his daughter Ann M Gregory and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.

Date

2016-07-26

Publisher

IBCC Digital Archive

Rights

This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.

Identifier

Gray, HM

Collection Items

Medal ribbons
Ribbons for The 1939–1945 Star, France and Germany Star and Defence Medal.

Herbert Gray's navigator's, air bomber's and air gunner's flying log book
Navigator's, air bomber's and air gunner's flying log book for Sergeant Herbert Gray from 21 February 1944 to 10 November 1945. Detailing training and operations flown. Served at RAF Stradishall, RAF Hemswell and RAF Elsham Wolds. Aircraft flown were…

Herbert Gray
Head a shoulders portrait of Herbert Gray in airman’s uniform tunic. On the reverse ‘My father’.

Herbert Gray
Head a shoulders portrait of Herbert Gray in airman’s uniform tunic.

Herbert Gray
Head a shoulders portrait of Bertie Gray wearing tunic with flight engineer brevet and officer's peaked cap. On the reverse ‘H M Gray in RAF, 1939-45 war’.

Letter to his wife from Herbert Gray
Starts with complaint that phone calls from wife are replacing letters which he does not like, but did enjoy hearing his wife’s voice. Letter is then a long explanation of why he cannot answer her last letter as it is in his locker at the squadron…

Letter to his wife from Herbert Gray
Starts with thanks for letter number 3 but complains about lack of letters for a couple of days particularly as he had been on operations. Sets up times for future phone calls. Noted that the crew’s original aircraft had been lost while being flown…

Letter to his wife from Herbert Gray
Expresses concern over regularity of wife’s letters and length of time that letters take to get through. Mentions that they might not be able to depart on leave until Tuesday as the might be on operations Monday night. Recounts that planned 13th…

Letter to his wife from Herbert Gray
Begins with slight admonishment over wife’s letter writing regularity and discussion of progress on wife’s health issues. Provides details of 11th operation which involved an extremely long sortie, taking off in daylight and recovering next…

Letter to his wife from Herbert Gray
Opens by expressing concern over wife’s health issues. Goes on to give news about upcoming leave. Mentions crew outing to Scunthorpe. Provides details of tenth operation which was a successful daylight operation. Mentioned that the crew had now…

Letter to his wife from Herbert Gray.
Starts with suggestion that a recent news film of daylight operation to Le Havre, which he was on, gives a good idea of what bombing is like. However as most of his operations were at night he goes on to describe these. Describes emotions and…

Envelope
Registered letter envelope from Sergeant H M Gray at RAF Stradishall to Mrs H M Gray, Lightcliffe Yorkshire.

First flight in a Stirling
Detailed description of impressions, emotions and events leading up to and then during Bertie Gray’s first trip in a Stirling aircraft. Includes descriptions of stalling, corkscrewing and flying on two engines.
View all 13 items

Collection Tree

  • Gray, Herbert