Due to his popularity, Bray was elected Speaker of the South Australian House of Assembly (served 31 May 1888 – June 1890), after which he refused renomination to that office.

He was Chief Secretary in the 2nd Playford ministry (19 August 1890 – 6 January 1892), when he left politics, sparking the East Adelaide by-election, which saw the first Labor MP elected in South Australian history.

[citation needed] Bray was appointed Agent General for South Australia in London (served 29 February 1892 – April 1894), resigning early because of ill health.

[citation needed] On 13 June 1894, he died at sea between Aden and Colombo aboard the Oceana en route for South Australia.

[4] Tom's father, William Bray, rather than being a captain in the Royal Navy as is traditionally claimed, in fact, worked as a cordwainer and cabinet maker prior to his early death in 1816, aged about 26 years.

Tom and Sarah were married at St Mary's parish church, Portsea, Hampshire, on 22 July 1838, just prior to their embarkation for Australia in the Prince George, arriving in the colony in December 1838.

[citation needed] Once in England, the family lived in comfort first at Blackheath in Kent, and later at Harrogate, the Yorkshire spa town in which Mrs Bray died.

He was father of Sir Denys Bray (1875–1951), K.C.S.I., K.C.I.E., C.B.E., sometime Foreign Secretary to the Government of India, and Indian delegate to the League of Nations during the British colonial period.

Descendants include Sir John Henry Kerr, colonial governor in India, David Russell, classical guitarist, and Piers Sellers, astronaut.