Sir Edward Bray (19 August 1849 –) was an English lawyer and judge who served as a judge in Birmingham and London and as Controller of Contracts in the Indian Army Headquarters during World War I. He played cricket during the 1870s.[1]
Bray was born at Shere in Surrey in 1849, the son of Reginald Bray, a solicitor and Justice of the Peace.[2] He was educated at Westminster School, where he played cricket in the school XI.[3] [4] He went on to study at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he gained cricket Blues in 1871 and 1872. Bray had already played for Surrey County Cricket Club and made his first-class cricket debut in 1870, and made a total of 30 first-class appearances between 1870 and 1879, the majority for his county side or Cambridge University.[1]
Bray's family was descended from Thomas More, and he qualified as a barrister at Lincoln's Inn in 1875.[3] He served as a County Court judge in Birmingham between 1905 and 1908 before returning to London as a judge at Bloomsbury and Brentford. During the First World War he served as the Controller of Contracts in the Indian Army Headquarters.[1] [2] He received a knighthood in the 1919 New Year Honours.[2]
Bray's son, Sir Edward Hugh Bray, also served in India during the war and played first-class cricket for Middlesex County Cricket Club and Cambridge University.[5] Bray died at Kensington in London in 1926 aged 76.[3]