- Contributed by听
- stemor
- People in story:听
- CYRIL MURRAY
- Location of story:听
- FRANCE, NORTH AFRICA, ITALY
- Background to story:听
- Army
- Article ID:听
- A4357280
- Contributed on:听
- 05 July 2005
2ND LIEUTENANT CYRIL MURRAY
My late father, Cyril Murray, was part of the British Expeditionary Force and was sent to France as a young 2nd Lieutenant. He was one of the soldiers rescued at Dunkirk. I do not know very much about his experiences at Dunkirk - apart from the fact that he was one of the last soldiers to escape - since the war was something he did not enjoy discussing. However, I would like to share the little I do know.
I found a book in the USA, 鈥淭he Sands of Dunkirk鈥 (written by Richard Collier in 1961 and published by E.P. Dutton, New York) about the Dunkirk evacuation, and was amazed to find a paragraph about my late father which I quote:
鈥淪ome saw death as in a mirror: Lieutenant Cyril Murray, in the dunes at Malo, checked the chambers of his revolver, decided five for them, one for me. He thought there could be no mercy if the Germans took him prisoner; his identity discs were stamped 鈥楯ew鈥.鈥
After returning to England from Dunkirk, he was sent out to North Africa where he was in the British Eighth Army and participated in battles in Sidi Rezegh, Tobruk, Benghazi, El Alamein. Following this, he was shipped to Italy for the European campaign and was finally 鈥渄emobbed鈥, with the rank of Major, in 1946.
On a lighter note, while my father was in North Africa, he started corresponding with a young lady from Hull (my father was a Londoner, they had never met and I have no idea where he got her address from). The young lady was working in a munitions factory. This correspondence carried on throughout the war and at some stage, never having met, and on the basis of this pen-pal relationship, they decided to get married once the war was over! The marriage took place in 1946 at the Hull Western Synagogue and they (my parents) remained happily married until my father passed away 56 years later!
I was fascinated to learn of this web-site and to read some of the stories. The archiving of personal stories and anecdotes about the Second World War from people who actually took part and to whom we owe our freedom is so important.
MAJOR CYRIL MURRAY 1916-2000
Medals: Defence Medal, 1939-1945 Medal, 1939-1945 Star, Africa Star, Italy Star, Dunkerque 1940 Medal, 8th Army Bar
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