Charlotte A. Gray

{{Short description|English educator and temperance missionary}}

{{other people|Charlotte Gray}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Charlotte A. Gray

| image = Charlotte A. Gray (The National Temperance Quarterly, 1912).png

| birth_date = April 7, 1844

| birth_place = Southampton, England

| death_date = November 9, 1912

| death_place = London

| occupation = {{hlist|educator|temperance leader|missionary organizer}}

| known_for = founder, International Anti-Alcohol Congresses

| organization = {{hlist|Independent Order of Good Templars|Woman's Christian Temperance Union}}

}}

Charlotte A. Gray (April 7, 1844 – November 9, 1912) was an English educator and temperance missionary.{{cite book |last1=Cherrington |first1=Ernest Hurst |author-link1=Ernest Cherrington |title=Standard Encyclopedia of the Alcohol Problem |year=1926 |publisher=American Issue Publishing House |location=Westerville, Ohio |volume=3 |via=Internet Archive |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/standardencyclop02cher/page/1136 |pages=1136–37 |chapter=GRAY, CHARLOTTE A. |access-date=3 January 2023 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}} She was engaged in education from her teens, first in family or school, then in the wider field of the temperance movement, particularly in continental Europe. With a talent for learning foreign languages, Gray served as Continental Good Templar Missionary for the Independent Order of Good Templars (I.O.G.T.) and was instrumental in establishing branches of the organization in Holland, Switzerland, France, Bavaria, and Saxony. She was also the founder of the International Anti-Alcohol Congresses.

Early life and education

Charlotte Anne Gray was born at Southampton, April 7, 1844. She was the second daughter of John Gray (1809-1861), of Islington, and Elizabeth Hurry (nee Wells) Gray (1820-1886). There were three siblings: Margaret (b. 1841), Alice (b. 1846), and Mary (b. 1850).{{cite web |title=Charlotte Anne Gray |url=https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/GXGG-L7R |website=www.familysearch.org |access-date=4 January 2023}}

Most of her girlhood was spent in London, where her father died. At the age of 20, she went to Prussia, and after two years' training in a German family, returned to England with poor health.{{cite journal |title=Notable people of the Day |journal=The Phrenological Journal and Science of Health |date=January 1888 |volume=84 |issue=1 |pages=15–16 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m8M-AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA16 |publisher=Fowler & Wells |location=New York |access-date=4 January 2023}} {{Source-attribution}}

Career

{{Quote box

| quote = "All women should do their part, whether it be in removing difficulties, taking stones out of the way of those who run, or attending to those who may be wounded in the strife." -Charlotte A. Gray (Bremen, 1903)

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| width =25%

| align =left

}}

As a young woman, Gray engaged in educational work in England. In 1874, she went to Bruges, Belgium, but after three months, removed to Antwerp, In that city, at the end of 1876, Gray's sister joined her and they opened a small English-language school.

Gray felt a distinct religious calling to engage in temperance work,{{cite journal |editor1-last=Rhoads |editor1-first=Samuel |editor2-last=Lewis |editor2-first=Enoch |title=Temperance in Europe |journal=Friends' Review: A Religious, Literary and Miscellaneous Journal |date=8 July 1886 |volume=39 |issue=49 |page=779 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tk4pAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA779 |access-date=4 January 2023 |publisher=J. Tatum. |location=Philadelphia |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}} though she was slow to arrive at the conclusion that it was best for her to adopt strictly temperance habits because she had been taught in a childhood that was marked by almost constant sickness that alcoholholic stimulants were necessary to her.

In Antwerp, in 1878, Gray joined the I.O.G.T. She became the organization's Deputy Right Worthy Grand Templar (D.R.W.G.T.) for the continent of Europe.{{cite journal |title=GERMANY |journal=The International Good Templar |date=1892 |volume=5 |pages=53, 172, 202 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=10A2AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA202 |access-date=4 January 2023 |publisher=B.F. Parker |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}}

Her first public work was carried on in Holland. For several years, she and her sister conducted two Bands of Hope and Juvenile Temples in Antwerp, the members being American, English, Flemish, and German children. In 1883, in Antwerp, Gray served as secretary at the formation of the Coffee Tavern Company, a temperance refreshment house.{{cite journal |title=Abroad |journal=The Coffee Public-house News and Temperance Hotel Journal |date=1 April 1883 |issue=54 |pages=42–43 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uekTAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA3-PA43 |access-date=4 January 2023 |language=en}} In the same year, at Rotterdam, she formed an English Templars' Lodge for sailors visiting the port. She was also an honorary vice-president of the Belgian Patriotic League against alcoholism.

File:Charlotte A. Gray (The Phrenological Journal, 1888).png

One of the most important contributions made by Gray to the cause of temperance reform was her initiation of the first International Congress Against Alcoholism, which was held at Antwerp in 1885, and which was the forerunner of similar meetings held in Europe and the U.S. The influence of these international congresses upon temperance work was great. Gray was personally active in the Congresses held in Zürich (1887), Paris (1889), Christiania (1891), The Hague (1893), Basel (1895), Brussels (1897), and Vienna (1901).

About 1887, on the request of Frances Willard, Gray served as missionary organizer for the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.) in Switzerland. She did not find that country ready for a W.C.T.U., but she did succeed in gaining Dr. Auguste Forel as a member of the I.0.G.T. in 1892. He promised to do all he could for the Order in his country. Later, Gray installed him as the I.O.G.T.'s first Grand Chief Templar of that country.

Death

Charlotte A. Gray died in London, November 9, 1912, and was buried at Abney Park Cemetery.{{cite journal |editor1-last=Rae |editor1-first=John Turner |title=Editorial Annotations on Influential Lives |journal=The National Temperance Quarterly |date=December 1912 |issue=20 |pages=116–18, 196 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9NsF0igW5aoC&pg=RA1-PA116 |access-date=4 January 2023 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}}

At the quarterly session of the Warwickshire District Lodge of Good Templars, held in Nuneaton, in December 1912, a resolution of condolence was presented and carried by a standing ovation.{{cite news |title=I.O.G.T. QUARTERLY MEETING |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/821556825/?terms=Charlotte%20A.%20Gray&match=1 |access-date=4 January 2023 |work=The Sutton Coldfield News |via=Newspapers.com |date=21 December 1912 |page=9 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}}

References