Parramatta Greats: Gary Raymond

“My mum attended our corps (church) anniversary. We performed on stage singing, and doing other items, and my mother said she watched us performing knowing, full well, the next day she would kill us. She felt calm – no remorse. 

“But Brigadier Spillet, The Salvation Army officer, got up to speak and mum told me his next words pierced her heart. He said: ‘I feel in my heart God is telling me that there is an adult here that needs Jesus to forgive your sin and heal your hurts … God has told me that this decision will not wait until tomorrow, it has to be tonight!’ Mum stood up and walked quickly forward, bursting into uncontrollable tears. ” – Gary Raymond

If it wasn’t for a knock on the door, many years ago, by a Salvation Army officer inviting five little boys to attend the local Sunday school, Gary Raymond APM, OAM, could have been dead within weeks, and would never have had the chance to go on to help save the lives of innumerable others.

His highly depressed mother, who was exhausted by poverty, often unable to feed her children and living with a husband who drank and gambled heavily, had circled the date on the calendar when she would drug and then gas Gary, along with his four younger brothers and herself.

She simply had no hope. 

The transformation in his family, the day after the Sunday school celebration, was astonishing, says Gary, who went on to become a highly decorated NSW Police Force Chief Inspector and today serves as a member of The Salvation Army Suicide Prevention and Bereavement Board.

When his mother told his father what she had been planning to do, Gary says: “My father expressed his deep sorrow and promised things would change, which they drastically did.

“Several members of our family, including my mum, and later myself, went on to serve The Salvation Army in uniform.”

After a highly-distinguished police career which included suicide negotiation, Gary works in “retirement” in a range of volunteer roles, including chaplain to the NSW Police Post Trauma Support Groups. He carries out around 80 speaking engagements each year and runs free training and workshops, through The Salvation Army, in suicide prevention, suicide crisis negotiation, and support for those bereaved by suicide.

In 2007, Gary was awarded the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for services to the community in critical-incident stress management and suicide prevention.

Gary today maintains a passion for seeing lives saved physically and spiritually, and says: “The Salvation Army has been involved in suicide prevention since 1907, and in my work I have seen amazing things over the years, which I call God’s miracles out of messes.

“God used me so many times to save the lives of suicidal people. As I negotiated, I was able to tell them that God loved them and had a plan for their life. Often, this was enough to cause people to come back from the edge and give their life another go!”

By Naomi Singlehurst

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