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| Leonard Warren Murray | |
|---|---|
| 22 June 1896 – 25 November 1971 | |
| Image:Murray, Admiral L.W..jpg 29 July 1942 - Rear Admiral L.W. Murray presenting awards to crew members of the destroyer HMCS St. Croix, which sank the German submarine U-90 on 24 July 1942. |
|
| Place of birth | Granton, Nova Scotia, Canada |
| Place of death | Derbyshire, England |
| Allegiance | Canada |
| Service/branch | Royal Canadian Navy |
| Years of service | 1911 - 1945 |
| Rank | Rear Admiral |
| Commands held | Newfoundland Escort Force 31 May 1941, Mid-Ocean Escort Force Feb 1942, Commander-in-Chief Canadian Northwest Atlantic 30 April 1943 |
| Battles/wars | World War I World War II |
| Awards | Companion of the Order of the Bath Commander of the Order of the British Empire |
Rear Admiral Leonard Warren Murray CB, CBE, (22 June 1896 – 25 November 1971) was a Canadian naval officer who played a significant role in the Battle of the Atlantic. He commanded the Newfoundland Escort Force from 1941 to 1943, and from 1943 to the end of the war was Commander-in-Chief, Canadian Northwest Atlantic. He was the only Canadian to lead an Allied theatre of operations during World War II.1
Naval career
At 15 years of age, Murray entered the Halifax Royal Naval College. At 17 he was a midshipman on the Royal Navy vessel HMS Berwick, and at the outbreak of World War I he was assigned to serve on HMS Niobe. Four of his classmates were sent to the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Good Hope and were killed off the coast of South America on 1 November 1914 at the Battle of Coronel - thereby becoming the first Canadian-service casualties of World War I.1 Murray served briefly on CGS Margaret and HMCS Rainbow, and after promotion to Sub-Lieutenant spent the last two years of World War I as assistant Navigating Officer on HMS Leviathan, where he set up convoys across the Atlantic to outwit German U-boats - invaluable experience for the Battle of the Atlantic more than 20 years later. Murray ended the war serving in the North Sea on HMS Agincourt.
After World War I Murray served briefly on HMS Calcutta, then did a full tour aboard HMS Aurora as Navigation Officer, until HMS Aurora was paid off in 1921 due to naval budget cuts. At this point, with the Royal Canadian Navy depleted of ships upon which he could serve, Murray considered a civilian career and in 1922 qualified as master of foreign-going vessel. Deciding to remain with the navy, Murray joined many of his colleagues and spent the inter-war years alternating between shore assignments as a training officer with the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve, and serving aboard Royal Navy vessels, which in Murray's case included HMS Revenge (during a tour in Turkey where he befriended Lord Louis Mountbatten2), HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Tiger. By 1927 he had risen to Lieutenant-Commander and spent a period studying at the Royal Naval Staff College in the UK before being promoted to Commander and senior naval officer at CFB Esquimalt in 1929. From there, Murray was assigned for a year as Naval Staff Officer to Department of National Defence (Canada) Headquarters in Ottawa, before setting back to sea for two years, commanding the small fleet of East Coast destroyers from the bridge of the HMCS Saguenay. At this point, in mid-1934, Murray was appointed to a new position of Senior Naval Officer, Halifax, a position that combined the Commander of the East Coast with the Command of the Naval Dockyard in Halifax. In June 1936 Murray was sent to the UK to serve in the Admiralty Operations Division, and in December 1936 he started his final tour with the Royal Navy serving as Executive Officer aboard the battleship HMS Iron Duke, ending his time in the UK at the Imperial Defence College. On the eve of World War II, when the Royal Navy was mobilised, Murray returned to Ottawa as a Captain, and Director Naval Operations and Training.
At the outbreak of World War II he was appointed Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff. On 31 May 1941, he was promoted to Commodore and put in charge of the Newfoundland Escort Force (NEF). The NEF was reorganized in February 1942 as the Mid-Ocean Escort Force (MOEF).1
On 30 April 1943 he was promoted to Rear Admiral and made Commander-in-Chief Canadian Northwest Atlantic. Headquartered in Halifax, he commanded all Allied air and naval forces involved in convoy protection in that area.1
He was controversially blamed for failing to prevent sailors who rioted in Halifax on VE Day. As a result, he resigned from the Navy and left Canada for Great Britain in September 1945.1
Quote
Except for the few months at sea in Assiniboine, my war work was a solid slog, mostly at a desk, averaging 15 hours a day with frequently a full 24. My job was to obtain the greatest possible result from relatively inexperienced personnel. There was little opportunity for anyone to step on another’s toes. They were spread too thinly and there was a more responsible job for each as soon as he felt confident of his ability to take it on. In the autumn of 1941 young volunteer reserve officers who had never seen salt water before the war took command of corvettes manned by 88 men—the number of white and black keys on a piano and each with his own peculiar note—and took their full part in the Battle of the Atlantic.
Experience had taught me this: to find out what you’re capable of, it is only necessary to get a chance to do it—and someone else must have enough confidence in you to provide that chance. In my dealings with the young RCNVR captains I did my best to give them the opportunity to find their own feet and they did it. Once having tasted success they never looked back. What a blessing that we had the bright young peoples to accept this kind of responsibility.1
References
- ^ a b c d e f Juno Beach Centre: Admiral L.W. Murray
- ^ p 34, Cameron, James M. Murray: The Martyred Admiral, Lancelot Press 1980, ISBN 0-88999-145-6
- Cameron, James M. Murray: The Martyred Admiral, Lancelot Press 1980, ISBN 0-88999-145-6
- Sarty, Roger. Rear-Admiral LW Murray and the Battle of the Atlantic, in Warrior Chiefs, Bernd Horn and Stephen Harris, eds. Dundurn Press 2001, ISBN 1-55002-351-9
- Tucker, Gibert Norman, The Naval Service of Canada: Volume I: Origins and Early Years, King's Printer, Ottawa, 1952
- A look at Canada's navy
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