Wikipedia

Basil Murray

Basil Andrew Murray (1902–1937), was a British editor, journalist and Liberal Party politician.

Basil Murray
Basil Murray
Personal details
Born1902 (1902)
Died1937 (aged 34–35)
At sea
Political partyLiberal
Spouse
Pauline Newton
​
(m. 1927)​
Children2, including Ann
Parent
RelativesRosalind Murray (sister)
EducationNew College, Oxford
OccupationJournalist

Background

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Murray was the second son of the scholar Gilbert Murray and Lady Mary Howard, daughter of the 9th Earl of Carlisle. He was educated at Charterhouse School and New College, Oxford (Classical Scholarship and Charles Oldham Prize). In 1927, he married Pauline Mary Newton, daughter of the artist of Algernon Newton.[1][page needed] Their daughters were writers Ann Paludan (1928–2014) and Venetia Murray (1932–2004). His sister, the writer Rosalind Murray (1890–1967), was the first wife of Arnold J. Toynbee.[2]

Professional career

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Murray was Editor of Oxford Outlook from 1920–23. He was Equerry to H.I.H. Yasuhito, Prince Chichibu of Japan during his visit to Europe.[1][page needed] As a journalist, he covered the Spanish Civil War from the Republican side, making radio broadcasts from Valencia. His biography of David Lloyd George, L. G. was published in 1932.[3]

Political career

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Murray was employed at the Liberal Campaign Department in 1927.[1][page needed] He was Liberal candidate at the 1928 St Marylebone by-election. He was Liberal candidate for the Argyllshire division at the 1929 and 1935 General Elections.[4][page needed]

Murray became involved in anti-fascist activism after Hitler's rise to power and in 1936 managed to incite riot by heckling the British fascist Oswald Mosley during a speech at Oxford.[5] He was subsequently tried and convicted of breach of the peace in a proceeding described by the philosopher Isaiah Berlin as a disastrous miscarriage of justice.[6]

Electoral record

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1928 St Marylebone by-election
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Unionist Rt Hon. James Rennell Rodd 12,859 56.1
Labour David Amyas Ross 6,721 29.4
Liberal Basil Andrew Murray 3,318 14.5
Majority 6,138 26.7
Turnout 53,107 43.1
Unionist hold Swing
1928 London County Council election: Streatham[7]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Municipal Reform Frederic Bertram Galer 7,463 n/a
Municipal Reform James Elliott Mark 7,416 n/a
Liberal W. G. Jackson 2,058 n/a
Liberal Basil Andrew Murray 2,005 n/a
Labour R. C. Beresford 1,084 n/a
Labour C. W. Dorrell 1,051 n/a
Municipal Reform hold Swing n/a
Municipal Reform hold Swing n/a
General Election 1929: Argyllshire[8][page needed]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Unionist Frederick Alexander Macquisten 11,108 44.1 −2.1
Liberal Basil Andrew Murray 8,089 32.1 +1.0
Labour James Laird Kinloch 6,001 23.8 +1.1
Majority 3,019 12.0
Turnout 25,198 62.7 0.0
Unionist hold Swing -1.6
General Election 1935: Argyllshire[9][page needed]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Unionist Frederick Alexander Macquisten 13,260 53.6 N/A
Liberal Basil Andrew Murray 11,486 46.4 N/A
Majority 1,774 7.2
Turnout 24,746 56.6 N/A
Unionist hold Swing N/A

Death and legacy

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In 1937 Murray was sent to Valencia by the International News Service to report on the Spanish Civil War, but his dispatches failed to impress his employers and he was fired after a few months. According to Kate Mangan in her memoir Never More Alive, the loss of his job and an unrequited infatuation with a mysterious British socialite called Mary Mulliner plunged Murray into depression. He took to drinking heavily and ended up with a severe bout of pneumonia.[10] He died on the British hospital ship SS Maine as he was being evacuated to Marseilles.[11] Claud Cockburn claimed that Murray was actually bitten to death by his pet monkey as he lay in a drunken stupor in his hotel room in Valencia; Sefton Delmer in Trail Sinister suggested a rather more sordid relationship with the animal.[12]

Murray provided Evelyn Waugh with the model and first name for his anti-hero, Basil Seal, star of the novels Black Mischief and Put Out More Flags.[13] He was also the model for Jasper Aspect in Wigs on the Green by Nancy Mitford.[14]

References

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  1. ^ a b c The Liberal Year Book, 1929
  2. ^ "Toynbee, Arnold Joseph". Who's Who. A & C Black. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. ^ Murray, Basil (1932). L. G. Sampson Low, Marston & Co Ltd.
  4. ^ Craig, F. W. S. (1977). British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949. London: Macmillan.
  5. ^ de Courcy, Anne (2003). Diana Mosley: Mitford Beauty, British Fascist, Hitler's Angel. London: Random House. pp. 163–164. ISBN 978-0-060565329.
  6. ^ Berlin, Isaiah (2004). Hardy, Henry (ed.). Letters 1928–1946, Vol. 1. Cambridge University Press. p. 179. ISBN 978-0-521833684.
  7. ^ "LCC Election: Full results of polling". The Times. 10 March 1928.
  8. ^ The Times, 3 June 1929
  9. ^ Whitaker's Almanack (1939)
  10. ^ Mangan, Kate (2020). Never More Alive: Inside the Spanish Republic. London: The Clapton Press. pp. 232–242.
  11. ^ "BASIL MURRAY; Recent Correspondent in Spain for International News Service". The New York Times. 2 April 1937. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
  12. ^ Delmer, Sefton (1961). Trail Sinister. London: Secker & Warburg. pp. 337–343.
  13. ^ Garnett, Robert Reginald (1990). From Grimes to Brideshead: The early novels of Evelyn Waugh. Lewisburg, Pennsylvania: Bucknell University Press. p. 86. ISBN 978-0-838751701.
  14. ^ Rintoul, M.C. (2014). Dictionary of Real People and Places in Fiction. Routledge. p. 397. ISBN 9781136119408. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
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