Born in 1850,[1] Gale was orphaned when he was 4, when both his parents died in the cholera epidemic of 1854,[1] and he was raised by his aunt.
[1] Aged 16, Gale got a job as an apprentice at the Barbados Agricultural Reporter, at the time, the country's leading newspaper.
Nine years after he started working at the Barbados Agricultural Reporter, Gale became the paper's leader-writer.
[1] He became honorary secretary of the Defence Association, opposed to proposals by Governor John Pope-Hennessy to federate Barbados and the Windward Islands.
[1] In 1888, Louis de Souza, a young barrister in British Guiana was imprisoned for six months for contempt of court for publicly criticising judicial decisions.