English activist and journalist Antony Grey was BOTD in 1927. Born Anthony Wright in Cheshire, he studied history at Cambridge University, working as a journalist in Yorkshire before moving to London to study law. He spent 12 years as press officer for the British Iron and Steel Federation, learning lobbying techniques that equipped him for his future life as an activist. In 1958, he began working for the Homosexual Law Reform Society, a lobby group set up to change laws which criminalised “gross indecency” between men. He spent most of the 1960s campaigning tirelessly for law reform, giving up his press work to devote himself to writing articles, giving speeches and organising action to promote the passage of amending legislation. At his mother’s request, he adopted the surname of Grey for his advocacy work, so as not to embarrass his family. In 1967, the Sexual Offences Act was passed, decriminalising sex between men over the age of 21 in England and Wales (though remaining a criminal offence in Scotland and Northern Ireland). Lord Arran, who sponsored the legislation, later credited Grey with “[doing] more than any single man to bring this social problem to the notice of the public”. In 1971, Grey became secretary of the Albany Trust, a charity set up to help gay men with psychological problems. Later in life, he was involved in counselling and training work and joined the executive committee of the British Association for Counselling. He also wrote several books promoting gay rights, including Quest for Justice: Towards Homosexual Emancipation and Speaking of Sex and Speaking Out: Sex, Law, Politics and Society. Grey met his life partner Eric Thompson in 1960, living together seven years before the law reform took effect. They entered into a civil partnership in 2005, the day after same-sex civil partnerships became legal in England. In 2007, forty years after the passage of the Sexual Offences Act, he was named Stonewall’s Hero of the Year. He died in 2010, aged 82.