Hamish Gray, Baron Gray of Contin

James Hector Northey "Hamish" Gray, Baron Gray of Contin, PC, DL (28 June 1927 – 14 March 2006) was a Scottish Conservative politician and life peer.

The Right Honourable The Lord Gray of Contin PC DL
Minister of State for Scotland
In office 13 June 1983 – 11 September 1986
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	The Earl of Mansfield
Succeeded by	The Lord Glenarthur
Minister of State for Energy
In office 7 May 1979 – 13 June 1983
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	Dickson Mabon
Succeeded by	Alick Buchanan-Smith
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
In office 4 July 1983 – 14 March 2006 Life Peerage
Member of Parliament for Ross and Cromarty
In office 18 June 1970 – 9 June 1983
Preceded by	Alasdair Mackenzie
Succeeded by	constituency abolished
Personal details
Born	28 June 1927
Died	14 March 2006 (aged 78)
Political party	Conservative

Gray was born in Inverness and educated at the Inverness Royal Academy. His father owned an Inverness roofing firm. He was commissioned into the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders in 1945 and served in India, during partition. He married Judith Waite Brydon in 1953 and they had two sons and a daughter.

He was elected as an Independent member of Inverness Council in 1965 and at the 1970 general election he was elected to Parliament as the Conservative and Unionist Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Ross and Cromarty. He was appointed to the Whips' Office in 1971, and he served as a front bench Energy spokesman (1975–1979). Upon the Conservatives' return to government in 1979, he was appointed as the Minister of State for Energy under David Howell, where he remained until the 1983 general election, when he was defeated in the new Ross, Cromarty and Skye constituency by the SDP candidate Charles Kennedy.

He was made a life peer in 1983, taking the title Baron Gray of Contin, of Contin, in the District of Ross and Cromarty,[1] and was Minister of State for Scotland from 1983 to 1986.

He served Inverness as Deputy Lieutenant (1989), Vice Lord Lieutenant (1994) and Lord Lieutenant (1996–2002).

He died on 14 March 2006 at a hospice in Inverness after a long battle with cancer.

References

1. "No. 49410". The London Gazette. 8 July 1983. p. 9009.

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Hamish Gray