Mark Nicholas Gray

Mark Nicholas Gray MBE is a Colonel in the British Royal Marines.

Gray is well known for having stopped a disaster at the Peruća hydroelectric dam during the Croatian offensive of 27–28 January 1993 when he raised the spillway channel and reduced the level of water in the lake. This prevented collapse of the dam when the withdrawing Serbs detonated 30 tons of explosives they had placed there.

Early life
Gray was educated at Bradfield College and Durham University, where he studied Russian. He joined the Royal Marines in 1984 and has seen service in Northern Ireland (Operation Banner), Northern Iraq (Operation Provide Comfort 1991), before being deployed to the former Yugoslavia through UNPROFOR.

Peruća incident
In 1992 Gray defied land mines and booby traps to open a sluice gate on top of the Peruća dam in Croatia shortly before the occupying Serbs detonated explosives deep inside it. This action had been unknown to the public until described to the Science Festival in 1995 by engineering Professor Paul Back from Oxford University. He described how Serbian militia had expelled UN observers from the 65-metre-high dam in January, 1993, and set off huge explosives in a maintenance gallery that ran the dam's length at foundation level. "This was an attempt to use the 540 million cubic metres of stored water as a weapon of mass destruction to the downstream land and population, " said Professor Back. "Some 20,000 people would have been drowned or rendered homeless had the dam failed as intended. " Severe damage was caused to three points in the dam corresponding to where the saboteurs had placed their explosives. In the central section alone it was estimated that 15 tons of explosive material had been used. At each of these three points the top of the dam, made of rock fill with a clay core, sagged by two metres, said Professor Back, who was a member of a British team despatched by the Overseas Development Administration to inspect it and advise on repairs after the Croatians reoccupied it. "During the tenure of the UN observers, but while the dam was in Serb hands, Gray had visited the site and observed that the Serbs were holding the water level well above the correct full supply level, " he said. "On his own initiative, and exceeding his authority, he opened the surface spillway gate sufficiently to slowly reduce the water level. He managed to lower the water level by some metres by the time the attempt to destroy the dam took place. Had he not been able to reduce the level, there is no doubt that the dam would have failed as water would have poured over the slumped crest after the explosions." As it was, Professor Back said it was only a miracle that the dam had not failed. With gunfire echoing in the hills engineers had to race against time before the ongoing erosion of the dam's clay core caused a blow-through and total collapse. Professor Back said he learned later that Major Gray could have been disciplined for exceeding his authority. "I wrote to the Ministry of Defence and told him he should be given a medal instead." Gray’s biographical details show no record of any medal being awarded for this act. Items of Major Gray’s UN equipment are on display at the Royal Marines Museum.

After UNPROFOR
In 1998, while in command of Z Company, 45 Commando Royal Marines he took part in Operation ‘’Tellar’’, providing relief in Nicaragua in the wake of Hurricane Mitch and in 1999 an exercise in the United States.

He saw service in Iraq (Operation Telic), Beirut (Operation Highbrow), and Somalia (Operation Capri) and Afghanistan (Operation Herrick). He has had staff appointments at the Permanent Joint Headquarters, Navy Resources and Plans in the Ministry of Defence, the Headquarters of the Multi-National Force – Iraq in Baghdad and the US Joint Chiefs of Staff in The Pentagon (as the deputy CDS liaison officer during the build up and conduct of the 2003 Iraq invasion), at the end of which he was accorded the privilege of addressing both US Houses of Congress, “one of the few Royal Marines to have entered the Capitol Building in uniform since his predecessors burned it down on 24 August 1814 ”.

After Iraq
He has taught at the Joint Services Command and Staff College, Shrivenham. On promotion to Colonel he was appointed to the staff of Fleet Commander Operations, where he was the Head of Operational Policy. He also attended the US Marine Corps Command and Staff College in 1997, graduating with distinction.

He was appointed Commanding Officer Fleet Protection Group Royal Marines in July 2009. In January 2010, the Unit picked up a prestigious counter-piracy award. From September to December 2010 he commanded the Operation Capri Naval Task Group, comprising the ships RFA Fort Victoria, HMS Northumberland and HMS Montrose, along with boarding teams from FPGRM, conducting counter-piracy operations in Somali waters. During this time the Task Group captured six pirate teams.

In July 2011 he moved to HQ International Security Assistance Force as the Director, Combined Joint Operations Centre in Afghanistan, where he was the Chief of Current Operations

Other
He is a qualified PADI scuba diving instructor.

Honours and Awards
He was awarded the MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours 2002, for his part in planning the major UK Armed Forces exercise in Oman in 2001, Exercise Saif Sareea II. In 1995, he featured on the front page of The Times newspaper, being recognised for his role in the incident at the Peruća dam.

On 27 January 2013, on the 20th anniversary of the Peruća incident, Gray was awarded Order of Duke Domagoj by the President of Croatia Ivo Josipović. The award was gazetted on 29 March 2013.

The Croatian Radiotelevision filmed a documentary on Gray's involvement in the Peruća Lake dam incident.


 * Member of the Order of the British Empire – 2002
 * Order of Duke Domagoj - 2013