Herbert Harley Murray

Who was Herbert Harley Murray?

Sir Herbert Harley Murray KCB was a Scottish colonial governor.

A member of Clan Murray headed by the Duke of Atholl, he was born in Bromley, the son of the Right Reverend George Murray, Bishop of Rochester, by Lady Sarah Maria, daughter of Robert Hay-Drummond, 10th Earl of Kinnoull. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford and entered the civil service in 1852. He was chairman of England's Board of Customs and then acted as a relief commissioner for Newfoundland after the 1894 bank crash. Murray was made Governor of Newfoundland in 1895 and knighted that same year.

Murray tried in vain to prevent the sale of the Newfoundland Railway to Robert Gillespie Reid by trying to stop the contract from getting royal assent. Murray was critical of Premier James Spearman Winter's administration and was recalled in 1898.

Murray married Charlotte Letitia Caroline, daughter of Charles George James Arbuthnot, in 1859. They had several children. She died in 1884. Murray remained a widower until his death in March 1904, aged 74.