JONATHAN GRAY 



worst of the whole thing was that the enemy 

 still retained possessioi^ of the ground, and they 

 are now forming entrenchments. Much mistaken 

 if they think we are going to attack them." 



From the time of its inception, the Bath and 

 West Society has been exceptionally fortunate 

 in its voluntary workers. The vitality which 

 has sustained it during its long life, and such 

 success as it has achieved in the course marked 

 out for it, must be set down mainly to these 

 shapers and moulders of its policy who created 

 and perpetuated its standard of work and re- 

 sponsibility. Instances among these of excep- 

 tional devotion to the Society's interests serve to 

 bring forcibly home, from time to time, the 

 strength of its hold upon those most capable of 

 serving it, and the disinterested zeal and en- 

 thusiasm it is able to evoke. Whilst the examples 

 I have given may serve to illustrate this, I have 

 left unnamed scores of others equally entitled 

 to remembrance, and to whose memories I would 

 gladly pay tribute did space permit. I will, 

 however, content myself with briefly recalling 

 three more notable personalities. The first, in 

 seniority, was Jonathan Gray, the living em- 

 bodiment of the Society's best traditions, the 

 repository of all knowledge concerning it, and 

 the ungrudging giver of all that continuous work 

 for it represented. He may be said to have lived 

 for the Society, which was the one hobby of his 

 life, at which he was always working. He was 

 the self-constituted watch-dog over everything 

 and everybody connected with it. When I was 

 debating in my mind whether or not I should 



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