Walter Bray

1885 - 1918

Walter Edwin Bray was born in Brixton on October 23, 1885, the eldest of four sons of Walter Albert Bray and his wife, Jesse. Walter Sr. was then working as an omnibus driver and his sons, Walter Edwin and William Samuel  were recorded as scholars. 

Shortly afterwards, the family moved south of the Thames, first to New Cross, then to 11 Carlton Gardens in Lambeth, by which time two further sons - Lionel Edward and Jack Stanley - had been added to the family.

In 1901 and then aged fifteen, Walter left home to become the youngest of ten stableboys working for trainer Albert Sadler at Freemason Lodge.

Walter Bray rode his first winner on Oceano at Sandown on June 14, 1901.

Triumph quickly gave way to tragedy. Little more than a month later — on Thursday, 25 July — Walter was exercising Sadler’s Epsom Lass at Freemason Lodge when the mare suddenly bolted and crashed into a tree. Walter sustained a fractured skull and was carried, gravely injured, to the Rous Memorial Hospital. For a time, his career appeared finished.

Months of convalescence followed, but slowly — painfully — he began to mend. By the following spring he was back on the gallops, and on Tuesday, 22 April 1902, he returned to Epsom to partner First Principal in the City and Suburban. Miraculously, he won. Then, for good measure, he won the last race, too, on Margo.