George ‘Dolly’ Gray (1874-1947)
‘Dolly’ Gray was mentioned by Billy Bennington, who remembered him playing on the streets of Norwich with the dulcimer on a pram.
Many years later, as a result of publicising our search, a granddaughter of Dolly Gray contacted us with information about him, and also told us that her father and uncles had played, tuned and repaired dulcimers during the mid twentieth century. Dolly was a family nickname, handed on to the oldest son in each generation.
George was born in the Coslany area of Norwich and worked in the boot trade all his life. He is known to have played in pubs and played the banjo as well as the dulcimer.
His two younger sons, Billy (John William, born 1910) and Albert (born 1912) both tuned and repaired dulcimers, and their youngest sister Harriet (born 1915) could play too, although their playing tended to be limited to the home. Albert stepdanced and played the spoons as well.
Albert’s daughter and son remember their father restringing dulcimers for other people and making bridges and beaters.
Further back in the family, George Gray’s father, Everitt (1838-1916) was licensee of the Golden Dog in Magdalen Street in Norwich in the 1890s, and then of the Dove on Barrack Street, subsequently run by his son John until its closure in 1907. A photo from the 1920s has been unearthed, showing a fishing trip from the Golden Dog, with a dulcimer in the foreground – this may well have belonged to one of the Grays, but unfortunately it’s not possible to identify the people in the photograph now. It could well be either Albert or Billy, but we may never know!
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