Murray, Hugh

Although a different birth date was used on his attestation papers, Hugh Murray was born on 23 August 1892 in Derrylusk, Parish of Roslea, Monaghan, Ireland. His parents were Patrick and Ellen (Toal) Murray who were farming in Derrylusk at the time of his birth. Other known siblings were Michael, Margaret, and Mary.

It appears that Hugh’s brother Michael immigrated to Canada first, arriving  around 1911 and settling in British Columbia by 1915. Although his obituary gives his year of immigration as 1914, a  Hugh Murray, born about 1892 in Ireland and going to his brother in Winnipeg, was found on the passenger list of the Corsican that arrived in Halifax on 10 February 1913.

Hugh signed his attestation papers on 25 January 1916 in Winnipeg, occupation given as clerk. With brown eyes and brown hair, he was just shy of his 24th birthday. The 100th Battalion had been organized in Winnipeg in November of 1915 with recruitment throughout the city. With a strength of 31 officers and 880 other ranks, the battalion embarked from Halifax aboard the Olympic on 19 September 1916. On board was Sergeant Hugh Murray.

Once in England Hugh was transferred to the 11th Reserve Battalion. That June, for overstaying a pass by three days, his rank was reduced to Acting Corporal, and then further reduced in October for drunkeness, improperly dressed, and resisting arrest. That November Hugh was struck off strength to the 78th Battalion, arriving in France on the 11th and joining the unit on the 23rd. The 78th Battalion, also from Winnipeg, had arrived in France earlier that year and over the course of the war, served in many of the major battles including Ypres 1915, 1917, Somme 1916, Arras 1917, 1918, Passchendaele, Drocourt-Queant, and Canal Nord.

In December of 1917 Hugh was appointed Corporal. In late March of 1918 he sustained an accidental gunshot wound to the leg. While lying in a field eating his lunch during practice manoeuvers he was hit with a machine gun bullet from a tactical exercise being carried on nearby. Hugh was treated for his wound at the No 13 Canadian Field Ambulance, returning to the unit on the 26th. In June he was again wounded, gunshot wound to the thigh, and admitted to the No 4 Stationary Hospital in Arques on the 11th. In early July he was transferred to the No 83 General Hospital in Boulogne and then on to the No 10 Convalescent Depot in Ecault later that month. He rejoined the unit in early September, appointed Lance Sergeant on  the 14th. Two weeks later Hugh was admitted to the 2nd Australian General Hospital in Wimereux on 29 September with shrapnel wounds to the hands and face. He was discharged on 19 November, returning to the 78th Battalion on 9 December. On the 14th Hugh was granted a fourteen day leave to the UK, returning on the 11 January. For overstaying his leave by seven days he was deprived of his Lance stripe and forfeited seven days pay. In early May he proceeded to England, embarking for Canada on the 31st aboard the Adriatic. Hugh was discharged from service on demobilization on 12 June 1919, intended residence given as Winnipeg.

Hugh worked as a sleeping car conductor for the Canadian National Railway in Winnipeg before moving to Kenora, Ontario in 1924 where he apprenticed as a butcher and worked at the AL Murray Grocery (no relation). On 18 January 1928 Hugh married Marie Antoinette Favreau, daughter of Joseph and Marie Louise (Gauthier) Favreau. Marie had been born in Medicine Hat, Alberta before the family relocated to Kenora. On the marriage registration, Hugh’s place of residence was given as Fort William, intended place of residence after the marriage as Kenora.

Hugh began working  at the Kenora District Jail in 1930, retiring as Sergeant in 1958. Children were very much evident in the Murray household. Hugh and Marie had  three children, Mary Ellen, Kathleen, and John,  and two other babies, Michael and Teresa,  that died at birth. They also had long time special foster son Joe Delorme as well as twenty-two other foster children over the years.

Predeceased by his brother Michael in Marysville, British Columbia in 1950, Hugh Murray passed away suddenly on 29 April 1967 in Kenora.  He was survived by his wife Marie, two daughters Mary Ellen (Mederick) Lemay and family and Kathleen, son John, and foster son Joe, all of Kenora. His sisters Mary and Margaret had immigrated to the United States where they were living, both married,  at the time of his death. Hugh was a member of the Notre Dame Roman Catholic Church, the Knights of Columbus, serving as Grand Knight and District Deputy in the Kenora Council, the Notre Dame Credit Union, and the Royal Canadian Legion.

Hugh’s wife Marie died in 1992. They are interred in the family plot in the Lake of the Woods Cemetery, Kenora.

 

By Judy Stockham and Mary Ellen Lemay

photos and obituary: courtesy of daughter Mary Ellen Lemay

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