Captain Henry William Murray

[anthony]

The Register of the Victoria Cross states that Murray was born on 30 December 1884 and died at Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. For BDM of Australian VCs I recommend the online Australian Dictionary of Biography. The ADB check the actual certificates. The ADB entry for Murray is www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A100626b.htm

Murray was born on 1 December 1880. He died on 7 January 1966 at Miles District Hospital, Queensland. Miles is about 335 Km (200 miles) from Brisbane and nearly five hours by road.

Murray was awarded the Victoria Cross for a well known action at Stormy Trench which is mentioned by name in his citation. Could the entry be updated to reflect this location.

[Les]

Anthony,

I've checked a few of my books and agree that the "Register" does show 30/12/84. We all know that the Register does have a "few" mistakes, so I also checked more reliable sources. The odd thing is that "Symbol of Courage" & David Harvey's "Monuments to Courage" both show the 1884 date, yet clearly on the photo in MtC the headstone states died 7/1/66 aged 85 - this would make him born 1880/81.

This said the only written evidence I've been able to find that states 1/12/80 is the Aussie site. I think this needs further research and as I know one of the main contributors to the book "Symbol of Courage", I'll have a word with him and see what he suggests..... he may have updated info since the book went to press.

Watch this space,

Les.

[anthony]

Les

Thank you for following up.

I have been a great supporter of the Register if the Victoria Cross since the first edition which I was fortunate to buy when in the UK in 1981. One of the memorable moments of that trip was spending an afternoon in Rose Coombs’ office at the Imperial War Museum. Any work with thousands of facts will have some errors.

In this case it would seem the confusion was caused by Harry Murray himself since his World War 1 enlistment form dated 30 September 1914 says he was 30 years and 0 months. This would make his birth date approximately 30 September 1884 not 30 December 1884. On 23 October 1941, his mobilization form gives his date of birth as 1 December 1885 and his age as 55. In 1942 when he volunteered for the Australian Imperial Force his date of birth was 1 December 1886 and his age was 56.

The enlistment and mobilization forms and even the Army List are all secondary sources. Obviously it was going to be someone in Australia such as the highly regarded Australian Dictionary of Biography with access to the primary source data such as birth certificates that was going to reveal this harmless vanity.

Anthony