Born 13th. October, 1948, in Hunslet, Leeds, Britain; died 25th. November, 2001.
British civil servant, social historian, and academic.
Full name: Alan Julian Michael Bray.
EditEarly Life
He was brought up in a working class area where his father worked in the engineering industry. His mother died when he was 12 years old. At the age of 13 he met Graham Wilson at the Central High School in Leeds and they became life-long friends.
EditEducation
Alan Bray went to Bangor University where he took a joint degree in history and English. At this time he also took up Anglo-Catholicism enthusiastically, and after graduating he started training for the priesthood in an Anglican seminary but dropped out after a year.
EditCareer
In 1970 he began a career in the Inland Revenue and earned a reputation for intelligent management and skillful handling of cases. He worked in Derek (later Lord) Rayner's team when the civil service was being reformed. He was able reach a satisfactory settlement in the Lloyd's fiasco, much to the surprise of many.
In 1970 Alan Bray joined the Gay Liberation Front (GLF). He also helped to found the Gay Christian Movement. He was also involved with the Gay News Defence Committee set up in 1977 to fight the libel prosecution of
Gay News by Mary Whitehouse. He joined the
Gay Activists Alliance(GAA)and in 1979 he helped to organise their zap of
The Guardian offices after the newspaper published an offensive article about the Gay Pride march.
During the day he worked in his job as a civil servant but in the evenings he was writing
Homosexuality in Renaissance England. This helped fashion the view in the developing subject of lesbian and gay history that the concept of homosexuality was a product of history. He was also a founding member of the Gay History Group.
His employers in the Inland Revenue gave him a sabbatical in 1984 and he was elected as a research fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford. During this time he wrote
The Clandestine Reformer: a Study of the Rayner Scrutinies.
In 1985 he was received into the Roman Catholic church and became a prominant lay Catholic advising the Archbishop of Westminster on gay issues.
From 1994 to 1997 he was a member of the editorial collective of
History Workshop Journal, a journal for socialist and feminist historians. The journal published two important articles by Alan Bray.
He took early retirement from the civil service in 1997 after a serious illness and being diagnosed with HIV. He became an Honorary Research Fellow of Birkbeck College, University of London.
EditPersonal Life
He lived with Graham Wilson in Notting Hill in London and died of heart failure aged 53.
EditWork
Homosexuality in Renaissance England, 1982
The Clandestine Reformer: a Study of the Rayner Scrutinies, 1988, published in the Strathclyde Papers on Government and Politics.
The Friend, 2002.
EditPress cuttings
'Alan Bray: Historian of homosexuality' Obituary in
The Times, 30th. November, 2001, page 25.
"Alan Bray presented a dapper image to the world, and was polite to the point of sometimes seeming slightly formal: yet beneath this lay an extraordinary energy and commitment. Though he was a highly private person, those who knew him well found great warmth and consideration, combined with a hedonism which it was a pleasure to share."
'Alan Bray: Unearthing the history of gay Britain' Obituary by Stephen Gee in
The Guardian, 18th. December, 2001, page 18.
The article includes a small colour photograph of Alan Bray.
"Alan was brought up, in significant economic hardship, in Hunslet, Leeds, and the death of his mother when he was 12, affected him deeply; he was vulnerable in relationships and retained an intense privacy, and sometimes loneliness, alongside unfailing tenderness towards his friends."
'Alan Bray Obituary' by Alan Stewart in
The Independent: The Friday Review, 25th. January, 2002, page 6.
"Alan Bray was a groundbreaking historian, whose classic book
Homosexuality in Renaissance England(1982) created a new field for an entire generation of literary critics, historians and gay activists. A second book, entitled
The Friend, completed just before his death, seems likely to do the same 20 years on."