Andrew Gray (1873-1953) of the Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Co
1873 Born at Glasgow
Educated at Glasgow University and the Royal Technical College
Assistant to Professor Andrew Jamieson, of the Royal Technical College.
1893 he joined the West India and Panama Telegraph Company, Ltd., and served as assistant electrician, chief electrician, and telegraph engineer.
1899 Entered the service of the Marconi Company. He introduced the Marconi system to the Hawaiian Islands, and with the assistance of Mr. T. E. Hobbs, also a member of the Marconi service, organised the telegraph working and trained the native operators of the Inter-island Telegraph Company of Honolulu.
1901 Appointed Chief of Staff to the Marconi Company under Senatore Marconi
1910 Became Chief Engineer of the company.
1953 Obituary [1]
WE regret to announce the death at Brentford (Middlesex) Hospital on Sunday of Mr. Andrew Gray, who was one of the pioneers of wireless telegraphy, and a personal friend and assistant of the late Marchese Guglielmo Marconi.
Mr. Gray, was was eighty, had lived in West London since his retirement twenty-one years ago.
Andrew Gray was born at Glasgow and graduated at Glasgow University. Later he took a diploma in electrical engineering at the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College, and then became assistant to the late Professor Andrew Jamieson.
In 1895 he joined the staff of the West India and Panama Telegraph Company, Ltd., as assistant electrician, and became chief electrician and, later, as telegraph engineer, he was responsible for the condition of 7,000 miles of cable.
It was in 1899 that Mr. Gray first joined the Marconi Company two years after its formation, and started immediately as personal assistant to Marconi; he was particularly active in tests between the Isle of Wight and the mainland in the tuning of wireless circuits whereby multiplex and duplex working were made possible.
At the turn of the century Mr. Gray introduced the Marconi system of wireless intercommunication in the Hawaiian group of islands, organising and training local operators.
In 1901 he was appointed chief of staff to the company and, because of his cable and telegraph experience, was put in charge of the training of new engineers and the organisation of ship and shore wireless communication of the Marconi International Marine Communication Company, Ltd. This company took over its own telegraph operating in 1906, but until 1919 Mr. Gray continued to supervise the testing and installation of wireless on ships. Meanwhile, as chief of staff, Mr. Gray was also responsible for design, testing, installation and working of all the wireless company's stations and also development of patents for the parent and associated companies.
He was appointed chief engineer to the company in 1910, joint general manager in 1923, and technical general manager in 1928.