Sophie Charlotte Bray, (born 12 May 1990) is an English international

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...

player who played as a forward for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

. She currently plays club hockey in the

Investec Women's Hockey League The Women's England Hockey League is a field hockey league organised by England Hockey that features women's teams from England. From 2011-2020 it was sponsored by Investec and was referred to as the Investec Women's Hockey League. Format Regula ...

Premier Division for

East Grinstead East Grinstead is a town in West Sussex, England, near the East Sussex, Surrey, and Kent borders, south of London, northeast of Brighton, and northeast of the county town of Chichester. Situated in the extreme northeast of the county, the civ ...

Personal life

Bray lives in

Claygate Claygate is an affluent suburban village in Surrey, England, southwest of central London. It is the only civil parish in the borough of Elmbridge. Surrounded by green belt, it lies inside the Greater London Built-up Area. Claygate was once in t ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

but was born in France where her father worked as a marketing consultant. Back in England she played tennis and football at local clubs, representing Surrey at tennis aged 11. She gave up playing tennis and played football for

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

Ladies, because she preferred a team sport. She was educated at

Tiffin Girls' School ("Dare to be Wise") , established = , closed = , type = Grammar Academy , religious_affiliation = , president = , head_label = Headteacher , head = Ian Keary , r_head_label = , r_head = , ch ...

Kingston upon Thames Kingston upon Thames (hyphenated until 1965, colloquially known as Kingston) is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, England. It is situated on the River Thames and southwest of Charing Cross. It is notable as ...

joining

Surbiton Hockey Club Surbiton Hockey Club is a field hockey club based in Long Ditton, Surrey, England. The club is one of the oldest hockey clubs in the world, being established in 1874. The home ground is based in Long Ditton, at Sugden Road. The club is currently ...

during her time at the school, initially playing for the colts aged 16, before progressing to the senior team. She attended the

University of Birmingham , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

where she studied psychology.

Career

Bray competed for England in the women's hockey tournament at the

2014 Commonwealth Games The 2014 Commonwealth Games ( gd, Geamannan a' Cho-fhlaitheis 2014), officially known as the XX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Glasgow 2014, ( sco, Glesca 2014 or Glesga 2014; gd, Glaschu 2014), was an international multi-sport ev ...

where she won a silver medal, and was a member of the

Investec Investec is an Anglo-South African international banking and wealth management group. It provides a range of financial products and services to a client base in Europe, Southern Africa, and Asia-Pacific. Investec is dual-listed on the London ...

sponsored winning team at the EuroHockey Championships in 2015. In 2016, she competed for

Team GB Team GB is the brand name used since 1999 by the British Olympic Association (BOA) for their British Olympic team. The brand was developed after the nation's poor performance in the 1996 Summer Olympics, and is now a trademark of the BOA. I ...

in the women's Olympic field hockey tournament at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, where

won gold in the final against the Netherlands after a penalty shoot out. Bray was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(MBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to hockey. Bray has also played for

Surbiton Surbiton is a suburban neighbourhood in South West London, within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames (RBK). It is next to the River Thames, southwest of Charing Cross. Surbiton was in the historic county of Surrey and since 1965 it has ...

, Uni of Birmingham and in the Netherlands for MOP Hockey Club,

Vught Vught () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a town in the southern Netherlands, and lies just south of the industrial and administrative centre of 's-Hertogenbosch. Many commuters live in the municipality, and the town of Vugh ...

, near

Eindhoven Eindhoven () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of North Brabant of which it is its largest. With a population of 238,326 on 1 January 2022,Kampong A kampong (''kampung'' in Malay and Indonesian) is the term for a village in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore and a "port" in Cambodia. The term applies to traditional villages, especially of the indigenous people, and has also been used t ...

. On 4 February 2019, Bray announced her retirement from international hockey. During her international career she scored 44 goals and made 134 appearances for England and Great Britain.

Honours and achievements

International

Great Britain

* Gold medal in

field hockey at the 2016 Summer Olympics Field hockey at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro took place from 6 to 19 August at the Olympic Hockey Centre in Deodoro. The competition had instituted several changes in the format and structure from the 2012 Summer Olympics. Twenty- ...

England

* Gold medal in

2015 Women's EuroHockey Nations Championship The 2015 Women's EuroHockey Nations Championship was the 12th edition of the women's field hockey championship organised by the European Hockey Federation. It was held from 22 to 30 August 2015 in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London, England. ...

* Silver medal in

Hockey at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Field hockey is one of ten core sports at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. It was the fifth appearance of hockey at the Commonwealth Games since its inclusion in 1998. The competition took place between Thursday 24 July and Sunday 3 Aug ...

* Bronze medal in

Hockey at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Field hockey at the 2018 Commonwealth Games was held on the Gold Coast, Australia from 5 to 14 April. The hockey competition was held at the Gold Coast Hockey Centre. This is the sixth time that the hockey competition was held, following the ...

* Bronze medal in

2017 Women's EuroHockey Nations Championship The 2017 Women's EuroHockey Nations Championship was the 13th edition of the women's field hockey championship organised by the European Hockey Federation. It was held from 18–26 August 2017 in the Wagener Stadium, Amstelveen, Netherlands. The t ...

Individual

* Investec Women's Hockey League Player of the Season 2018–2019

References

External links

* * * * 1990 births Living people English female field hockey players British female field hockey players Olympic field hockey players of Great Britain Olympic gold medallists for Great Britain Olympic medalists in field hockey Field hockey players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games silver medallists for England Commonwealth Games medallists in field hockey Field hockey players at the 2014 Commonwealth Games People educated at the Tiffin Girls' School Alumni of the University of Birmingham Members of the Order of the British Empire Female field hockey forwards Expatriate field hockey players English expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands People from Grasse SV Kampong players Surbiton Hockey Club players French emigrants to the United Kingdom East Grinstead Hockey Club players University of Birmingham Hockey Club players Sportspeople from Alpes-Maritimes {{England-fieldhockey-bio-stub