James Murray (general)

Infobox Military Person
name= Sir James Murray
lived= 13 March, 1853–17 October, 1919
placeofbirth= Ireland
placeofdeath= Cringletie, Peebleshire


caption= General Sir James Murray
nickname=
allegiance= flagicon|United Kingdom United Kingdom
branch=
serviceyears= 1872 - 1917
rank=General
commands=Eastern Command
battles= South African War
World War I
awards=KCB (1900)
laterwork=
portrayedby=

General Sir James (Wolfe) Murray, KCB (13 March 1853 – 17 October 1919), was a British officer serving as Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) during the first years of World War I.

Career

Murray attended Trinity College, Glenalmond, then Harrow from 1867 to 1869. [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/articleHL/35164?docPos=4&anchor=match Oxford Dictionary of National Biography] Ian F W Beckett, 2004] After graduating from the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich in 1872, he took a commission in the Royal Artillery.

He worked in the Intelligence Branch at Headquarters of Army from 1884 to 1890 and was then Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General for Instruction at Aldershot between 1894 and 1897.

He saw action in the Ashanti expedition in West Africa between 1895 and 1896 and was then transferred to India where he served as Assistant Adjutant-General from 1898 to 1899. He was appointed Assistant Quartermaster General (in charge of intelligence) at the Indian Headquarters in 1899, but was sent to South Africa the same year. He was a commander, lines of communication in Natal during the South African War from 1899 to 1900 but then returned to his old position in India.

In 1903, he was made Quartermaster General and in 1904 Master-General of the Ordnance. In 1907, he was appointed Commander, 9th (Secunderabad) Division in India which he commanded until 1911.

In 1912, he was an army representative on a British delegation to Russia set up by Parliament. [http://www.ssees.ac.uk/archives/mur.htm School of Slavonic and East European Studies Library, Imperial College, London] ]

In 1913, he was appointed Commander-in-Chief in Scotland and the following year in South Africa before the outbreak of war.

World War I

Following the sudden death of General Sir Charles Douglas as Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) in October 1914, Murray was appointed as his replacement on 30 October 1914. As such he was a member of the Army Council, but it was not a very happy appointment as Murray was largely ineffectual and innocuous, leaving strategy to Field-Marshal Lord Kitchener as War Minister. A lieutenant-general at the time, Murray was the lowest ranking officer ever to hold the position of Chief of the Imperial General Staff.

Following the failure of the Dardanelles campaign, Murray was replaced by General Sir Archibald Murray on 26 September 1915.

He subsequently was made chief of Eastern Command on 5 May 1916, relinquishing the position on 1 September 1917 to General Sir Henry Wilson.

He was the author of two handbooks on the Russian Army.

References

External links

* [http://www.1914-1918.net/war_office.html The British Army in Great War]