IMG_20250808_165541617_HDR — A ceremony at the Trail cenotaph on Friday marked the 80th anniversary of Robert Hampton Gray's death. (Greg Nesteroff/Vista Radio)

Lt. Robert Hampton Gray remembered in Trail

Lt. Robert Hampton Gray was remembered in the city of his birth Friday, a day before the 80th anniversary of his death during the Second World War.

A ceremony at the cenotaph in Trail heard speeches from mayor Colleen Jones, MP Rob Morrison, and MLA Steve Morissette, which you can listen to in full below.

Gray, who was raised in Nelson, died leading an aerial attack on a Japanese destroyer in Onagawa Bay, Japan. He was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, the last Canadian to receive the decoration.

Saturday has been declared Lt. Robert Hampton Gray Day by Trail, Victoria, Esquimalt, Vancouver, and Halifax, where the Royal Canadian Navy will formally name their sixth Arctic offshore patrol ship, HMCS Robert Hampton Gray.

Gray is remembered in many ways across Canada, in monuments, place names, and schools.