Anzac Dare devil Leaving Auckland

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 217, 2 December 1927, Page 1

Anzac Dare devil Leaving Auckland

FAMOUS AUSTRALIAN LIEUT.-COL. MURRAY, V.C., C.M.G. “HPHE acknowledged dare-devil of the whole Anzac Army,” whose glamorous career from private to lieutenant-colonel gained him practically every decoration for valour given to a soldier, has been living in Auckland, unknown and without fame, for months. Probably the most famous Australian soldier of the Great War, Lieut. - Colonel Henry William Murray, V.C. C.M.G., L.S.O. (and bar), L.C.M., Croix de Guerre, who was wounded a dozen times or more, and mentioned nine times in despatches, left on the IJlimaroa to-day to return to Queensland. Only a few friends knew the real identity the man while he was here on a health recuperative trip, for he prefers,' he says, to be valued for himself rather than for his decorations. Born near Launceston, Tasmania, in 1883, he enlisted as a private in the A.1.F., Western Australia, in September 30, 1914, and left with the Fourth Australian Brigade. He was a ma-chine-gunner in the 16th Battery at the landing on Gallipoli on April 25, While .a lance-corporal on the peninsula he was recommended for a L.C.M. by a New Zealand officer, Major Rose. This is the only decoration which ne will admit that he deserved at all. “The rest of my medals, after the L.C.M., were due to commanding the best troops on earth, except the New Zealanders, who were their equals,” he said. “They never let me down.” At the peninsula, evacuatiori, Lieut.Colonel Murray, then a second-lieuten-ant, was the only machine-gunner who got his full equipment away. He had been wounded twice, but he had been away from Gailipoli for only Wvo months. In France he was made captain in the infantry, and in September, 1916, the L.S.O. was awarded to him at the Somme. “I was one of the lucky ones,” he said. “They came out in the rations. The men did the job and I got the credit.” The Victoria Cross, he says, was given him because his company “held a trench.” The London “Gazette,” which is quoted by the Australian “Who’s Who,” says that the decoration was given to him for conspicuous bravery at Stormy Trench, near Guendecourt. in March, 1917. “By sheer valour,” says the report, “he made his presence felt throughout the line, encouraging his men, heading bombing parties, leading bayonet charges and carrying wounded to safety.” He was the first man to receive his decoration from the King at the investiture in 1917, and then he went back to Messines. The bar to the D.S.O. was awarded in June, 1917. “They gave me that for a running championship,” he said. “We all ran for 1,200 yards, and they couldn’t catch me.” Promotion to the rank of lieutenantcolonel and to the command of the 4th Machine-Gun Corps, was given to him in May, 1918. The Croix de Guerre, second class, and the C.M.G., were the two last decorations he received, the second one from the King at Buckingham Palace in 1919. Before he left for Australia. Lieut.Colonel Murray thanked the New Zealanders he had met for their kindness. A London newspaper wrote of Lieut.Colonel Murray as “ the acknowledged dare-devil of the whole Anzac Army, the fearless man who bore a charmed life through all conceivable daring exploits.”