A First-Class Life on a Third-Class Ticket

Ronald Gray, artist, had 'the most interesting life imaginable' according to his niece in her introduction to his 1943 memoirs.



Born and raised in Chelsea in the 1870s, he was an enthusiastic participant in the flourishing artistic life of London in the forty years before the First World War. He studied at the Westminster School of Art alongside Walter Russell, future Keeper of the Royal Academy, Henry Tonks and Aubrey Beardsley, among others.



He worked for Alfred Harmsworth's 'Home Chat', and Charles Morley's 'Pall Mall Gazette'. He knew Beerbohm Tree, Lily Langtry and Oscar Wilde among many other giants of the London Theatre.



He travelled to Palestine, the Caribbean, South Africa (just after the Jameson Raid), Australia - where he painted the Chancellor of Sydney University - and the United States, where he visited the White House to paint the wife of President Taft. He loved the Chelsea Arts Club, of which he was a founding member.