He has written a book called A '39er's Story: Remembering the Mediterranean War 1939-43 which is filed in the Armed Services Collection in the Auckland Museum Library. A quote from this book appears below.

"We in the 1st Echelon were known as '39ers because we were the only ones to join up in 1939. We were sometimes known as wife beaters, debt dodgers, and one jump ahead of the police. Because our ID numbers had four figures, like my 9413, we were also known as four figure men. All New Zealanders who enlisted in England go three-figure identification numbers (under 1000), then Auckland people went from 1000 and the south got the bigger numbers. None of the 1st Echelon had anything higher than a four-figure number. Later chaps had five, six or seven figures in their numbers. We were also known as four-finger men, because we would show four fingers when meeting other soldiers. To show the four fingers we used to bend the thumb into the palm of the hand."

Mr Bray sailed on the DUNERA, which like the SOBIESKI, a polish boat, had been diverted from India to Lyttelton to pick up troops. They met up with other boats from Wellington which included the ORION, the EMPRESS OF CANADA, the EMPRESS OF JAPAN, the ORCADES, the STRAITHAIRD, the H.M.S. SYDNEY and the H.M.S. EAGLE (an aircraft carrier). AWMM