Harold Stannus Gray

Sir Harold William Stannus Gray, KBE (16 August 1867 – 23 May 1951) was an Anglo-Irish landowner, horse breeder and politician. He served a brief period as a Member of Parliament during which he pressed for more help for agriculture.

Gray's father, Major George Gray, was a Deputy Lieutenant for County Antrim and he was born there at the family estate of Graymount. His father died in 1879 and Gray inherited the estate at that time, although he continued his education. In 1881 he entered Eton College but left after only a year; he went up to Magdalene College, Cambridge in 1885. After obtaining his degree he returned to Graymount to run the estate. Gray married his cousin, Rowena Stannus, the daughter of a County Antrim Justice of the peace, in 1894.

Both at his estate in County Antrim and at an estate on the Gog-Magog Hills in Cambridgeshire which he bought in 1904, Gray became a very successful breeder of thoroughbred racehorses, running some of them on the English and Irish turf. He also played a part in society, being High Sheriff of County Antrim in 1895. During World War I, Gray and his wife went to France to help in hospitals treating wounded allied troops, and Gray drove a motor ambulance for the French Red Cross. He also became a Justice of the Peace for County Antrim himself.

Gray's English land was in the Cambridgeshire constituency. At the time of the 1922 general election, the MP was Edwin Montagu, who had been Secretary of State for India in the Coalition government. Montagu's policy was unpopular with Conservatives and he had been sacked from his ministerial office in March 1922 after publishing a telegram from the Indian government which was critical of government policy. Montagu stood for re-election as a Liberal without pledging himself to either David Lloyd George or H. H. Asquith. The Conservatives had been expecting to have to support Montagu as a Coalition candidate. At a late stage, the "die-hard" section within the Cambridgeshire Conservatives decided to stand a candidate against Montagu, who would have the backing of the party centrally and Gray was chosen as their candidate at the end of October 1922.

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