John Cox Bray - Late Life and Legacy

Late Life and Legacy

Bray was appointed Agent General for South Australia in London (served 29 February 1892 – April 1894), resigning early because of ill health.

On 13 June 1894, he died at sea between Aden and Colombo aboard the Oceana en route for South Australia. His obituary appeared in The Times (London) of 19 June 1894.

Bray was created a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) by Queen Victoria in the New Year's Honours List for 1890. His wife, Alice Maude née Hornabrook, Lady Bray, survived him until 1935. They had three sons and one daughter.

• The youngest son, Harry Midwinter Bray (1879–1965), an Adelaide stock broker, was the father of the Honourable Dr John Jefferson Bray (1912–1995), poet, lawyer, academic, and judge, who served as Chief Justice of South Australia and Chancellor of the University of Adelaide.
• In 1904 Bray's only daughter, Blanche Ada Bray (1881–1908), married Sir John Lavington Bonython (1875–1960), sometime Mayor and later Lord Mayor of Adelaide, member of the well-known family of newspaper proprietors, philanthropists, and art connoisseurs. She bore him three children before dying 4 years later in childbirth aged 26: John Langdon Bonython AO (1905–1992); Elizabeth Hornabrook Bonython (1907–2008), later Lady Betty Wilson CBE, who lived to age 101; and Ada Bray Heath (1908–1965).

Bray's descendants continue to include people prominent in Australian politics and the Australian judiciary.

Bray was the first native-born South Australian to serve as premier, speaker, and agent-general for the colony.