Mrs Gray had lost another son, Flight Sergeant Cecil M Gray, in air operations in North Africa, a year earlier. Flight Sergeant Cecil Montrose Fay was serving as rear gunner on a Wellington Bomber which exploded during a raid on Martuba airfield, North Africa in February 1942. Mrs Gray framed the letters she had received regarding the death of her two sons and these were displayed in her Kohimarama home together with the Memorial clock.

Following the death of Mrs Gray the clock was handed down to family friend, Murray White, born 1934, and named after Murray Gray.

On 18 June 1943 Flying Officer Gray took off on board a Tiger Moth II (NZ1441) for a leaflet drop during an exhibition flight over Whangarei, part of the 'Air Week Liberty Loan' publicity campaign. The plane's engine cut out while inverted during a low altitude slow roll over Whangarei. In attempting an emergency forced landing in a sparsely populated street, the undercarriage of the plane caught power and telephone lines, causing the plane to crash into the corner of a brick building, killing F/O Gray. He was buried in the Waikumete Cemetery, Auckland [see: Obituary: New Zealand Herald, 19 June 1943]