Sir John Murray Murray, QC (9 March 1888 – 10 May 1976) was a South African judge who served as

Southern Rhodesia Southern Rhodesia was a landlocked self-governing British Crown colony in southern Africa, established in 1923 and consisting of British South Africa Company (BSAC) territories lying south of the Zambezi River. The region was informally kn ...

's Chief Justice from 1955 to 1961. Murray was born in Stellenbosch in what was then known as the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when i ...

, scion of an old and prominent South African family. His father, Charles Murray, was Superintendent of Education in the colony, and his great-grandfather was the Christian pastor Andrew Murray. He read Classics at Victoria College (today the University of Stellenbosch), and then studied at Worcester College,

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. He returned to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

in 1910 and soon thereafter was called to the

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

. In 1916 he married Fanny Izobel Eugene Booysen, a fellow student at Victoria College. They had 5 children - Neale, Eileen, Donald, Robert and Ewan - born between 1916 and 1925. He was appointed

Queen's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of ...

in 1932, and five years later, he became a judge on the

Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name Transvaal. * South African Republic (1856–1902; af, ...

bench. In 1955, he accepted an offer from the neighbouring territory of Southern Rhodesia to become its Chief Justice; he took office on 1 August that year. Murray was knighted on 14 August 1958. On 9 March 1961, which was his seventy-third birthday, he stepped down and was replaced by

Sir Hugh Beadle Sir Thomas Hugh William Beadle, (6 February 1905 – 14 December 1980) was a Rhodesian lawyer, politician and judge who served as Chief Justice of Southern Rhodesia from March 1961 to November 1965, and as Chief Justice of Rhodesia fro ...

. Murray retired to Plettenberg Bay, Cape Province, where he died at the age of 88 on 10 May 1976.

References

;Bibliography * {{DEFAULTSORT:Murray, John 1888 births 1976 deaths Alumni of Worcester College, Oxford Chief justices of Rhodesia People from Stellenbosch South African barristers 20th-century South African judges South African knights South African Queen's Counsel