He successfully stood for election to the 1st New Zealand Parliament in one of the electorates where most of the population was made up by military staff, the Southern Division.
[1] He was the son of Owen Wynne Gray, who was commissioned as a cornet in the 6th Dragoon Guards in 1791, and his second wife, Elizabeth Philpott.
[5] The Lieutenant-governor of New Ulster Province, Major-General George Dean Pitt, appointed Gray as resident magistrate on 1 August 1848.
[6] He served in the 1st New Zealand Parliament, representing the Southern Division, a large electorate encompassing Waikato, the Coromandel, the Bay of Plenty, and East Cape.
[8] Gray died at his home, Wynnestead, East Tāmaki, on 7 April 1859, aged 57.