James L Gray
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James Laird Gray FRSA (born 1926) is a leading light in the field 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 Bachelor of Science (First-Class Honours) in mechanical engineering.
Leaving his native Scotland, he traveled south to begin a 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 (b. 1955), Susan (b. 1956) and John (b. 1964).
After English Electric, Gray joined the British Electricity Authority, which later became the CEA and then the CEGB. By 1975 he was head of the CEGB's Turbine Generator Design Branch. When the CEGB required him to shift to Gloucestershire, Gray left to become Manager of Generation, Design and Technical Services at the South of Scotland Electricity Board (SSEB) in Glasgow.
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 career, which spanned the entire nationalised 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 Hinkley Point power station, and the James Clayton award for work on the ingress of seawater to a reactor at Hunterston B nuclear power station. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Gray retired in the late 1980s, and lives with his wife in Garelochhead, the family home since 1975. He has stayed busy in retirement; he and wife have been key figures in the renovation and management of a community centre, the Gibson Hall.
