Ellison Blair McMinn Murray (1878 – 1900)
A casualty of the Boer War commemorated at Epsom
Clearing The Kopjes
Image Source Illustrated London News 07 Jul 1900
On 4 February 1869, Mary Baird Brownlie married David Murray in Blythswood, Glasgow, Scotland.
The birth of their son, Ellison Blair M Murray, was registered in Lambeth 12/1878. For the 1881 Census, he may be found enumerated at 60 Bramah Road, Lambeth, with his Mother, Mary B B Murray (Wife, born 1848 in Scotland) as Head of the household, and his siblings, A sister had been born 9 years earlier in Glasgow. David Murray died during 1891, apparently in Scotland.
Ellison became a member of the London Scottish Regiment founded by the London Scottish Rifle Volunteers in 1859. At the outbreak of the Second Boer War, London Scottish contributed Captain A. W. Buckingham and 56 other ranks to the 2nd Volunteer Service Company of the Gordon Highlanders. This company left Aberdeen on 23 February1900, and joined the 2nd Battalion at Ladysmith on March 25th. Captain A. E. Rogers of the London Scottish already served with it as a volunteer, and commanded it after Captain Buckingham was invalided. At the action of Rooj-kopjes on 24 July1900, Corporal E. B. M. Murray of the London Scottish was dangerously wounded, and afterwards died, and Captain Rogers was slightly wounded. Murray may only have held an acting rank because the Gordon Highlanders’ Boer War Memorial at Edinburgh Castle records him as a Private without any service number.
Administration of his Estate (Effects £100) was granted to Mary Blair (sic – seemingly a clerical error) Murray, widow, of 63 Sidney Road Stockwell.
On 19 April 1923, Mary Baird (sic) Murray was brought to Epsom Cemetery from 14 Dumbarton Road. Brixton Hill, for burial in Plot D521, purchased by her married daughter Violet M Were. [With Baird, her maiden “Brownlie” is found to have to have been used as Mary’s middle names.]
Memorial to Boer War casualty Ellison Blair McMinn Murray on the headstone of
the grave of his widowed mother in Plot D521 of Epsom Cemetery.
Photographs by Roger Morgan © 2022.
A Memorial Cross was erected inscribed: –
“IN LOVING MEMORY / OF / OUR DEAR MOTHER / MARY BAIRD MURRAY / WHO PASSED AWAY 14th APRIL 1923 / IN HER 75th YEAR. / ‘THY WILL BE DONE. / HER CHILDREN SHALL RISE UP / AND CALL HER BLESSED’.
IN LOVING MEMORY / OF // ELLISON BLAIR MCMINN MURRAY./ AGED 21 YEARS. // WHO FELL IN ACTION, SOUTH AFRICA / 24th JULY 1900 WHILE SERVING WITH/ THE LONDON SCOTTISH VOLUNTEER / COMPANY ATTACHED TO THE GORDON / HIGHLANDERS
This all leads to a question why it was chosen to inter Mary B B Murray at Epsom. It has been surmised that her late husband could have been a brother or other relative of Charles Frederick Murray, gentleman of Woodcote Hall, aged 71, who was buried in Epsom cemetery on 17 December 1904. Mary may have wished to be near her extended family in death and her daughter, Violet, decided also to honour the sacrifice of her brother as a casualty of war.
(In the same way, the headstone on family plot A239 of presumed relative Charles Frederick Murray’s memorialises not only Charles’s son, Captain Frederick Dymoke Murray, who gave his life on 30 October 1901 in the South African War (2nd Boer War) but also his grandson, 2nd Lieut. Charles William Murray, who gave his life on 25/26 September 1915 in WW1.)
The marriage of another son of Mary, David Baird Brownlie Murray, (b. 1880) to Doris Helen Maybaum came to be registered in Worthing for the June Quarter of 1937. By 1940, they had taken up residence at 2 Christchurch Gardens, Epsom. David died there, aged 63, on 24 May 1944 [Reg. Surrey Mid E, 6/1944] – Effects £18,783:18:5.
Brian Bouchard 2022
With thanks to Roger Morgan