Hal’s Passing

Abstract

Hal had felt better in the days before his passing, well enough to anticipate doing some carpentry, so he had sharpened a saw a week earlier. The previous weekend he had visited Norfolk and Cambridge, calling in on Tom Harris. His sudden death was unanticipated, for the previous day he had been at an Open Day at the Middlesex Hospital of the University of London. He spent much of the afternoon there with a colleague, Professor Eric Roberts, who wrote, “He spent most of the afternoon of 9 July 1965 in my study at the Middlesex Hospital, discussing problems of mutual interest, full of his usual energy and vigour, went home and died the same evening.” Freye found him at 7am in bed next day and described him as, “laying peacefully with no [signs of having suffered] struggle or pain.” The funeral was a small ceremony held the following Monday after Hal’s cremation and conducted by the Rector of Northwood, for in their latter years the Grays worshipped at their local Anglican Church. Only Hal’s family and members of the laboratory were present. Hal’s ashes were finally buried in Freye’s family vault in Alderney. This action was accompanied by a very moving obituary that Freye wrote and published in a Guernsey newspaper. It spoke poignantly of his love for the island of Alderney, where had spent very many happy holidays with his family.