W. H. Gray

From around 1830 he attended night classes in London, where he made the acquaintance of Robert Thomas, founder of The Register, and J. M. Skipper, and through them became interested in the theories of E. G. Wakefield and the projected colony of South Australia.

Colonel Light completed his city survey in March 1837 and purchasers of preliminary town acres were able to make their selections in turn, as determined by lot.

Gray and his manservant built a thatched pug and pine cottage on one of his North Terrace allotments, so the little party could move from their tents to something more secure and comfortable.

[1] A limited number of country sections became available for selection in May 1838 and preliminary purchasers like Gray were in a good position to choose the better land, and closer to the city.

This was the beginning of his holdings in The Reedbeds area, the shallow marshland of the Torrens outlet which includes the modern suburbs Fulham, Lockleys and Underdale.

In the early 1840s the Colony was bankrupted by Governor Gawler's lavish spending on infrastructure (largely to stave off unemployment) and George Grey was sent out to replace him, and effected strict economies.

In the resulting recession, many colonists were made insolvent, and Gray, who relied on rent from his city cottages for much of his income, was forced to borrow heavily in a desperate gamble to avoid joining them.

In 1858 he was able to purchase from Joseph Johnson, "Frogmore", a 500 acres (200 ha) Reedbeds farm, and moved into its attractive (now long since demolished) cottage near what is now the north-west intersection of West Beach and Tapleys Hill roads.

Beneficiaries of his Will included the Bacon School (see above), the Home for Incurables, the Institution for the Blind, Deaf and Dumb but, surprisingly, not the Children's Hospital, which had been the recipient of much of his largess while alive.