James L Gray

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[edit] James Laird Gray BSc (Hons) FIMechE FRSA (1926-)

Jim Gray is a leading light among the ranks of turbine technology in the UK.

Born in Glasgow in 1926, he was educated in the early war years and qualified for university entrance at the age of just 16. However, he was too young to be admitted, and took up an apprenticeship at Yarrow Shipbuilders Ltd in Scotstoun. This was not his first job, however, he had also spent two school summers lumberjacking near Castle Kennedy. At 17 he entered Glasgow University and three years later graduated with a First Class Honours Degree in Mechanical Engineering.

Jim's mother (far right), maternal grandparents, aunts & uncles (Deniston, Glasgow, c 1895)

Leaving his native Scotland, he travelled south to begin an illustrious career in turbine and power station engineering with a post at English Electric in Rugby. In an article published at his retirement, he gave credit for this direction to the chief engineer of English Electric who said "forget naval turbines" and steered him towards power station turbines which were "the thing of the future."

Jim married his wife Mary in 1954, and has three children, Alex (1955), Susan (1956) and John (1964).

After English Electric, Jim joined the British Electricity Authority in its days before becoming the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB). Jim was to remain with the CEGB until 1975, at which time he was head of the Turbine Generator Design Branch.

Jim was unsettled after relocation with the CEGB to Gloucestershire, and looked for a new challenge back in his home country of Scotland. He moved to the South of Scotland Electricity Board (SSEB) in Glasgow as Manager of Generation, Design and Technical Services.

It was an exciting time, with new nuclear power stations coming into service, providing a large part of Scotland's non-fossil fuel generation capacity. He believes further modern nuclear generation capacity is a key part of future energy supply, and regrets the loss of expertise and manufacturing capacity that has been lost in this sector since the end of new-build nuclear projects in the UK.

During his distinguished career, which pretty much spanned the entire nationalized electricity supply era in the UK, Jim received two prestigious awards from the Institute of Mechanical Engineers: the Thomas Hawksley Medal for his investigative work into a major turbine failure at Hinckley Point power station, and the James Clayton award for work on the ingress of seawater to a reactor at Hunterston B power station.

Jim retired in the late 1980s, and lives with his wife in Garelochhead, the family home since 1975. He has stayed busy in retirement, where he and wife Mary have been key figures in the renovation and management of a community centre, the Gibson Hall.

His children are all married with families of their own. Sons Alex and John also live in Scotland, and his daughter Susan lives in Athens with her architect husband who she met at Edinburgh University.