James H. Gray

Who was James H. Gray?

James Henry Gray, CM AOE was a Canadian journalist, historian and author.

Born in Whitemouth, Manitoba, he moved to Winnipeg with his parents in 1911. In 1922, he dropped out of public school and went to work at the Winnipeg Grain Exchange as a messenger. Over the next eight years, he worked at the Exchange as an office clerk, bookkeeper, statistician and grain trader.

He was laid off in 1930 because of the Great Depression, and spent the next four years on unemployment relief. During that time, he upgraded his education by reading library books on politics, religion and economics, with a view to becoming a freelance writer.

In 1933, after two years of trying, he finally sold a freelance article to the Winnipeg Free Press. Two years later, he was hired on as a full-time reporter. He worked there until 1947 as a city hall reporter, editorial writer and Ottawa correspondent. He left the paper because he didn't want to write articles supporting his editor's opposition to federal agricultural subsidies, and moved to Calgary, Alberta.

He was editor of the Farm and Ranch Review until 1955, when he became editor of the Western Oil Examiner.