Photographer and painter, born in Kent, who studied at Lewes Grammar School and, determined to be an artist, attended Brighton College of Art under Walter Hayes. To make a living he joined HM Customs and during World War II was commissed in the Royal Engineers, ending as the Naples port commandant. He was a lifelong keen sailor. Demobilised and unable to make a living as a painter Gravett taught himself photography and set up a studio in Lewes, not far from the opera house at Glyndebourne. Eventually he was to become the photographer for the Festival Opera there, meticulously covering each production and the building of the new opera house in 1993–4. Major commissions also came from Picture Post, The Sunday Times, British Petroleum and wine merchant Peter Dominic.