BRAY, WILLIAM BAYLEY (1812-85) was born in London, the son of a wine merchant and educated as a civil engineer partly there and partly in Germany. (Assoc. I.C.E., 1836.) He was engaged on railway construction abroad and carried out important work for Robert Stephenson in Egypt in face of considerable official obstacles. In 1845 he was constructing a railway in Tuscany, Italy.

In 1851 Bray landed in Canterbury with his family. Believing that his professional life was at an end, he took up 500 acres of land at Avonhead, and (with Joseph Hill) the Bray Down run of 10,000 acres, in the forks of the Hawkins and Selwyn rivers. Bray was in the Provincial Council for Christchurch Country (1855-56) and in the first session was appointed chairman of a committee to report on the completion of the Port road. This brought him back to his profession. He took the levels in the Heathcote valley and ascertained the point at which the railway tunnel should enter the hills, and then proceeded to London, explained the project to the railway commissioners and obtained a contract at £235,000. In 1862 he reported on wharves for Lyttelton harbour, where the berthage was very exposed; and in the following year was chairman of the wharfage commission. Their report was strengthened by the opinion of Stephenson, the result of which was the breakwater at Officers point and the Gladstone pier. Bray constantly warned the people of Christchurch against an inundation of the town by the Waimakariri floods (which was fulfilled in 1868). He was a deeply religious man and a strong churchman. He died on 26 May 1885.

Canterbury P.C. Proc.; Acland; Lyttelton Times, 27 May 1885.

Reference: Volume 1, page 61

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