Hamish Gray, Baron Gray of Contin

James Hector Northey "Hamish" Gray, Baron Gray of Contin, PC, DL (28 June 1927 – 14 March 2006) was a Scottish Conservative politician and life peer.

The Lord Gray of Contin
Minister of State for Scotland
In office
13 June 1983  11 September 1986
MonarchElizabeth II
Prime MinisterMargaret Thatcher
Preceded byThe Earl of Mansfield
Succeeded byThe Lord Glenarthur
Minister of State for Energy
In office
7 May 1979  13 June 1983
MonarchElizabeth II
Prime MinisterMargaret Thatcher
Preceded byDickson Mabon
Succeeded byAlick Buchanan-Smith
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
In office
4 July 1983  14 March 2006
Life Peerage
Member of Parliament
for Ross and Cromarty
In office
18 June 1970  13 May 1983
Preceded byAlasdair Mackenzie
Succeeded byconstituency abolished
Personal details
Born28 June 1927
Died14 March 2006
(aged 78)
Political partyConservative

Gray was born in Inverness and educated at the Inverness Royal Academy. His father owned an Inverness roofing firm. He was commissioned into the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders in 1945 and served in India, during partition. He married Judith Waite Brydon in 1953 and they had two sons and a daughter.

He was elected as an Independent member of Inverness Council in 1965 and at the 1970 general election he was elected to Parliament as the Conservative and Unionist Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Ross and Cromarty. He was appointed to the Whips' Office in 1971, and he served as a front bench Energy spokesman (1975–1979). Upon the Conservatives' return to government in 1979, he was appointed as the Minister of State for Energy under David Howell, where he remained until the 1983 general election, when he was defeated in the new Ross, Cromarty and Skye constituency by the SDP candidate Charles Kennedy.

He was made a life peer in 1983, taking the title Baron Gray of Contin, of Contin, in the District of Ross and Cromarty,[1] and was Minister of State for Scotland from 1983 to 1986.

He served Inverness as Deputy lieutenant (1989),[2] Vice Lord Lieutenant (1994) and Lord Lieutenant (1996–2002).[3]

He died on 14 March 2006 at a hospice in Inverness after a long battle with cancer.

References

  1. "No. 49410". The London Gazette. 8 July 1983. p. 9009.
  2. "No. 51831". The London Gazette. 4 August 1989. p. 9056.
  3. "No. 24087". The Edinburgh Gazette. 5 November 1996. p. 2689.
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