16 Facts About Denis Bray

Denis Bray was Secretary for Home Affairs from 1973 to 1977 and again from 1980 to 1984.

Denis Bray was born on 24 January 1926 at the Matilda Hospital in Hong Kong to Rev Arthur Henry Bray and Edith Muriel.

Denis Bray's father was a missionary working in Fat Shan who ran the Wah Ying School.

Denis Bray went to school in Fat Shan and Chefoo before he went abroad to attend the Kingswood School and Jesus College, Cambridge.

Denis Bray served in the Royal Navy from 1947 to 1949.

Denis Bray was posted as Assistant Secretary for Chinese Affairs due to his fluency in Cantonese.

Denis Bray first made his presence following the Shek Kip Mei fire on the Christmas Day in 1953, in which he gate-crashed a meeting convened by Governor Sir Alexander Grantham at 6am on the next day, to ask the Governor to resettle the 50,000 homeless people left by the fire.

Denis Bray was Assistant Secretary of the Colonial Secretariat in 1953.

Denis Bray was Assistant Director of Urban Services and was the Secretary of the Special Duties Unit dealing with the Hong Kong 1967 Leftist riots.

Denis Bray oversaw the establishment of the District Boards, which were set up under Governor Sir Murray MacLehose's District Administration Scheme.

Denis Bray served as chairman of the English Schools Foundation from 1985 to 1991, presiding over the Maurice Millard incident of 1991, and was chairman of the Jubilee Sports Centre between 1985 and 1989.

Denis Bray was director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic from 1985 and executive director of the Community Chest of Hong Kong from 1985 to 1992.

Denis Bray was the president of the Hong Kong Yachting Association between 1989 and 1991.

Denis Bray married Majorie Elizabeth Bottomley, who was born in Hong Kong, in 1952, by whom he had one son Rupert and four daughters, Jennifer, Alison, Diana and Lucy.

Denis Bray wrote an autobiography, Hong Kong Metamorphosis, which was published in 2001.

Denis Bray died of blood cancer in Oxfordshire, England on 8 July 2005.