David King Murray

Who was David King Murray?

Sir Thomas David King Murray, KC, FRSE was a Scottish politician and judge.

The son of James Murray, Greenknowe, Bothwell, he was educated at Hamilton Academy, Glasgow High School and Glasgow University.

Called to the Scots Bar in 1910 and fought in World War I as a Lieutenant in the RNVR. He resumed his legal practice and was Junior Counsel to the Treasury in Scotland from 1927 to 1928, Sheriff-Substitute of Lanarkshire at Airdrie from 1928 to 1933, and Senior Advocate Depute from 1936 to 1938. He was appointed a King's Counsel in 1933.

He was Chairman of the Scottish Land Court from 1938 to 1941, and was Chairman of the Scottish Coalfields Committee from 1942 to 1944.

He was Solicitor General for Scotland from 1941 to 1945, and was elected at a closely fought by-election in 1943 as the Unionist Member of Parliament for Midlothian and Peebles North. He was knighted in 1941. Murray retired from the House of Commons at the 1945 general election and was appointed a Senator of the College of Justice in Scotland and Lord of Session in 1945, with the judicial title Lord Birnam.