Thomas married Lily Lane, an actress on 3rd September 1873 3603/1873 and they had two sons. (Lillie)
Richard William born 1876 7446/1876 Vict. died 1876 4957/1876 Vict. aged 1 month.
George Hayward born 1879 9294/1879 Vict. m. Blanche Hannah Mann
Thomas was a Bootmaker by trade.
Thomas was the second youngest child of Richard and Mary Ann Gray. He was born 1 July 1853 in Victoria a year after his parents and siblings arrived in Victoria in 1852 from New South Wales. He grew up in around Emerald Hill which later became South Melbourne.
Thomas took on the Trade of Bookmaker like his older brother John Robert. In 1873 he meets and marries Lillie Lane an Actress who was only 15 years old and had to have her parents consent to marry Thomas. Lillie had been born in Tasmania at Westbury.
must have been very upsetting for this young married couple. Their second child George Hayward was born 5th February 1879.
Disaster occurred in 1882, Lillie who was only 24 years old contracts and dies of Pulmonary Consumption. This must have been shattering for Thomas to loose the love of his life and to be left with a young son to raise by himself. Thomas buried his wife with their son Richard in the Melbourne General Cemetery.
Thomas never remarried perhaps he was too heart broken after loosing both his son and wife. His sister Jane Stiles helped support him with the raising of his son George.
It is understood that Thomas worked in the same boot making business at Fairfield Victoria as his brother John Robert for the rest of his life.
Thomas's son George married in 1900 on 26th July to Blanche Hannah Mann and they had 6 children.
George died on the 10th Apr 1915 and was buried at the Coburg Cemetery. His wife remarried in 1916 to Robert Stuart Menzies a Scottish Seaman. They raised George's children under Robert's surname Menzies.
By 1918 Thomas health had taken a turn for the worse and he died on the 24th October after a short illness.
A death notice placed in the Age Newspaper in Melbourne reads that Thomas was the BELOVED Grand Father of Lily, Elsie, George, Alma, Violet and Jean Menzies also beloved brother of Jane Stiles.
He is buried with his son George in the Coburg Cemetery. Not far away is the burial site of both the daughter-in-law and her second husband, Blanche and Robert Menzies.
Thomas' Grandson George William Thomas (Gray) Menzies was killed at Tobruk during the World War 2.
"Thomas life was full of sadness he never found love again."
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