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 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 known as South ...

's Chief Justice from 1955 to 1961. Murray was born in

Stellenbosch Stellenbosch (; )A Universal Pronouncing Gazetteer.
Thomas Baldwin ...

in what was then known as the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony (), 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. It existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with three ...

, 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 Worcester College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in 1714 by the benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet (1648–1701) of Norgrove, Worcestershire, whose coat of arms was ad ...

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

. He returned to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

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 * Protein bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a laye ...

Pretoria Pretoria ( ; ) is the Capital of South Africa, administrative capital of South Africa, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to the country. Pretoria strad ...

. 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 A King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) is a senior lawyer appointed by the monarch (or their Viceroy, viceregal representative) of some Commonwealth realms as a "Counsel learned in the law". When the reigning monarc ...

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; ...

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. Murray retired to

Plettenberg Bay Plettenberg Bay, nicknamed Plett, is the primary town of the Bitou Local Municipality in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. According to the census of 2001, the town had a population of 29,149. It was originally named Bahia Formosa ("Be ...

Cape Province The Province of the Cape of Good Hope (), commonly referred to as the Cape Province () and colloquially as The Cape (), was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequently the Republic of South Africa. It encompassed the old Cape Co ...

, 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