Sir Denys de Saumarez Bray by Walter Stoneman, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ © National Portrait Gallery, London
SIR DENYS DE SAUMAREZ BRAY, K.C.S.I., K.C.I.E., C.B.E.
Denys de Saumarez and Celistina Montgomery Bray (Residents 1936-1952).
K.C.S.I. - Knight Commander of the Star of India
K.C.I.E. - Knight Commander of the Indian Empire
Sir Denys Bray was born in Aberdeen in 1875. He went to Balliol College, Oxford and joined the Indian Civil Service in 1898. He married Celestina Montgomery Leigh, who had been born in 1881 in India, in 1903. They had three children, all born in India, Hope, Maurice and Elizabeth.
His first postings in India were to the north west provinces of Punjab, North West Frontier (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) and Baluchestan. While there he published two books about the Brahui, an ethnic group and language of Baluchistan. In 1916 he was appointed as Deputy Secretary of the Foreign Department at New Delhi and in 1920 he was appointed Secretary, a role he performed for 10 years.
The Bray's left India in 1930, and Denys Bray was appointed a member of the Council of the Secretary of State for the India Office.
in 1936, Bray left the India Office and moved to West Dene in Winchester. During the Second World War he served as chairman of the Winchester War Savings Committee.
In 1925, Denys had published a book on Shakespear's sonnets and then two further books on the Brahui.
Denys Bray died in 1951 and is buried at St Mathews, Winchester. His widow continued living at West Dene until 1952. Celestina died in 1956, in Winchester.
Bray’s publications included:
-
1909: The Brahui Language, Part I. Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing.
-
1913: Life History of a Brahui. London: Royal Asiatic Society.
-
1925: The Original Order of Shakespeare’s Sonnets. London: Methuen.
-
1934: The Brāhūī Language. Part II. The Brāhūī problem. Part III. Etymological vocabulary. Delhi: Manager of Publications.
See Who's Who https://doi.org/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U235031
