Len Murray

The Right Honourable The Lord Murray of Epping Forest OBE
General-Secretary of the TUC
In office 1973–1984
Preceded by	Vic Feather
Succeeded by	Norman Willis
Assistant General-Secretary of the TUC
In office 1969–1973
Preceded by	Vic Feather
Succeeded by	Norman Willis
Personal details
Born	Lionel Hodskinson (1922-08-02)2 August 1922 Hadley, Shropshire
Died	20 May 2004(2004-05-20) (aged 81) Loughton, Essex
Nationality	British
Political party	Labour
Other political affiliations	Communist
Spouse(s)	Heather née Woolf m. 1945 (later Heather, The Lady Murray of Epping Forest)
Children	2 sons incl AVM David Murray and 2 daus

Lionel Murray, Baron Murray of Epping Forest, OBE, PC (2 August 1922 – 20 May 2004) was a British Labour politician and Trades Union leader.

Early life

Lionel was born in Hadley, Shropshire, the son of a young unmarried woman of a local family, Lorna Hodgkinson, and was brought up by Nurse Mary Jane Chilton. He attended Wellington Grammar School, Shropshire, before reading English at Queen Mary College, London, but left after a year because of the emphasis on Anglo-Saxon language. He briefly became a teacher but found he was unsuitable and then joined the British Army.

Army

Murray was commissioned in the King's Shropshire Light Infantry in April 1943 and landed on the Normandy beaches on D-Day. Six days later 2/Lt Murray was badly wounded and in October 1944 he was invalided out of the British Army with the rank of Lieutenant.

Demobilisation

Murray worked at an engineering works in Wolverhampton as storekeeper, before leaving to sell The Daily Worker on street corners and joined the Communist Party. Whilst selling The Daily Worker, he encountered his former headmaster, who informed him he was wasting his time. Determined to improve himself, shortly afterwards Murray gained a place at New College, Oxford where he graduated with a First in PPE after two years' study under tutors including Dr Dick Crossman (later MP) and Sir John Hicks.

Career

Murray started as a manager for a Liverpool catering firm. He was a Trades Union Congress (TUC) employee from 1947 where he joined as an assistant in the Economics Department, and seven years later he was promoted Head of Department; Murray was elected Assistant General-Secretary in 1969.

In 1970 he was invited to deliver the Marlow (Scotland) Lecture to the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland. He chose the subject Trade Unions and the State - 1964 to 1970 in Retrospect.

He became General-Secretary (Leader) of the Trades Union Congress in 1973, leading it during the time of the Winter of Discontent and confrontations with Margaret Thatcher's government.

Personal life

Murray married Heather Woolf, a nurse, in 1945 and they had two sons, the younger of whom, David, pursued a successful career in the Royal Air Force, and two daughters, living at Loughton, Essex.

Appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1966 New Year Honours served as a TUC officer until his retirement in 1984, three years early. Upon his retirement in early May 1984, he made the following statement - "There are places to go, books to read, flowers to smell and trees to look at. I would like to walk through Epping Forest".

Sworn of the Privy Council in 1976, he was created a Life Peer as Baron Murray of Epping Forest, of Telford in the County of Shropshire on 14 February 1985.

Lord Murray, who served as a Methodist lay preacher, died in hospital in 2004 from emphysema and pneumonia.

External links

• News of Murray's death (The Guardian)
• Obituary of Len Murray (Daily Telegraph)