Son of Robert and Helen Roda Gray, of Sarnia, Natal. Husband of Rita Mary Gray, of Pretoria. Born Pretoria. ref. 85 years of SAAF
Col (rt) Graham du Toit Last Post 18 Aug 2026: Captain Robert Edward Gray, 2 Squadron, killed when Supermarine Spitfire Mk IXE 5571 failed to pull out of a dive during a bombing attack on the weapons range and crashed on the farm Sterkfontein near Pretoria; appears he blacked out in the dive, age 30. Unit2 was Army — set to Air Force. Cause already had blacked-out dive / Pretoria / Spitfire 5571; Sterkfontein filled.
5 Sep 2026: Unit "2 Squadron" (a squadron, SAAF's regiment-equivalent) promoted to Regiment, per John's decision. Corps (South African Air Force) unchanged.
25 Sep 2026, Unit2 service-branch sweep: the stored Secondary Unit "Air Force" was CLEARED as a duplicate. It was not a sub-unit, it was a service-branch word repeating what the Branch column already says. Secondary Unit is for sub-units -- a company, a squadron, a commando -- and this record's branch of service is unchanged at "Air Force".
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Col (rt) Graham du Toit Last Post
Col (rt) Graham du Toit Last Post 18 Aug 2026: Captain Robert Edward Gray from 2 Squadron was killed when his Supermarine Spitfire Mk IXE 5571 failed to pull out of a dive during a bombing attack on the weapons range and crashed on the farm Sterkfontein near Pretoria. It appears that he blacked out while the aircraft was in the dive. He was 30.
- South African War Graves Project open source ↗
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