Background
Gray was born in Bermondsey, London, on 25 April 1920.
Gray was born in Bermondsey, London, on 25 April 1920.
She was also mayor of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and Olympic torchbearer for the 2012 London Olympics. As a youngster she lived in Dulwich, near Herne Hill Velodrome. While a quality controller in an engine factory on the Harrow Road, a rail strike disrupted her travel from Herne Hill and she took up cycling, commuting through bomb-damaged streets.
She joined the Apollo cycling club
Other nearby clubs would not admit women. In 1946 Gray competed in a women"s race at Ordrup, Copenhagen, Denmark, in Britain"s first women"s international team
In the Women"s Cycle Racing Association, she promoted the cause of women"s cycle racing. In 1976 Gray became president of the British Cycling Federation, (now known as British Cycling).
In 2005 the British Broadcasting Corporation reported that Gray was the head of The Honourable Fraternity of Ancient Masons, one of two orders of women"s Freemasons in the United Kingdom. In 2001, in a public message to the Women"s Masonic Fraternity, she wrote that she had been a freemason for more than 50 years.
Gray was a Conservative councillor between 1982 and 1998 in Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and was mayor of the borough for a year from May 1990.