Gray Croucher was born in Portsmouth and was a captain in the invasion of Normandy during the War. He met a girl in Brugge, Belgium, where he moved and got married. In 1949, he started working for the publisher De Goede Pers in Averbode, where he did the illustrations for hundreds of books, including the 'Api' series by L. Vermeiren. In 1950, Gray's first comic was published in the magazine Zonneland, 'De Avonturen van Piet'. He also made several gag strips, such as 'Fox', 'Rik & Rak', 'De Verstrooide Professor', 'Fokske', 'Notenkraker', 'Marleentje', 'Sefje' and 'Piet en zijn Papa'. For writer John Flanders, Gray illustrated many stories, like 'De Verloste Stad', 'Het Vliegend Konijntje' and 'Het Spookeiland', all in 1951. Two years later, he made 'Tijl UIlenspiegel', with text by Nonkel Fons.

Gray also made a few continuing series for Zonneland, with titles such as 'Het Geheimzinnige Huis' and 'Het Geheim van de Oude Trommel'. For the weekly magazine Averbode's Weekblad, Gray started the gag strip 'Zwaaipulle' in 1954 and 'Oscar' in 1959. In these years, he also illustrated for Tam-Tam and made a missionary story, 'Bamboe in de Broesse', written by Pater Marc and published by Sancta Infantia.

During the 1960s, Gray worked for the magazines Prutske, Zonnestraal ('Flip en Flup') and Zonnekind ('Mitoe', 'Rikske en Fikske'). Especially 'Rikske en Fikske', which also appeared in Doremi, was very popular.