Joined the Royal Navy (despite not being able to swim) and became a Radio Operator and Interpreter. Ray volunteered for the Navy and was adamant not to be recruited into the RAF or Army;

Aboard HMS Garland, a H37 G-class destroyer, in April /May 1944 she was assigned to the 14th Destroyer Flotilla of the Mediterranean Fleet where she escorted convoys and supported Allied operations in the Aegean. She escorted convoys and together with two other British destroyers, she sank the German submarine U-407 off Santorini.

After HMS Garland, Ray was aboard HMS Fleetwood, a (U47); from October 1955 HMS Fleetwood joined the 50th Escort Flotilla bases at Alexandria for escort duties in the Eastern Mediterranean, before returning to Britain at the end of the year