Frank Gray (politician)

Frank Gray (31 August 1880 – 2 March 1935) was a British politician. He served as a Liberal Member of Parliament for Oxford from 1922 to 1924.

He was educated at Rugby School and admitted as a solicitor in 1903; he retired from law in 1916, and entered the Army. He refused a commission, and served as a private soldier in The Princess Charlotte of Wales's (Royal Berkshire Regiment) until the Armistice.

After the war, he worked as a farm labourer, lived with Warwickshire miners, and toured the workhouses of Oxfordshire as a tramp. He wrote the book "The Tramp: his Meaning and Being" (Dent, London, 1931.) [ [http://www.workhouses.org.uk/index.html?poorlaws/poorlaws.shtml www.workhouses.org.uk - The Workhouse Web Site ] ]

In the 1918 general election he contested Watford, and he was elected as the MP for Oxford in the 1922 general election and was made a Liberal whip. He was accused of corrupt practices in the 1923 general election. Following a petition, he was unseated in May 1924, but was acquitted of corrupt practices.

In 1926, he crossed Africa from the Atlantic to the Red Sea in a car. He died while returning from South Africa to Southampton, having travelled there for his health.

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*Obituary in "The Times", March 4 1935, and various articles of the 1920s