Basil Murray



Basil Andrew Murray (1902–1937), was a British editor, journalist and Liberal Party politician.

Background
Murray was the second son of the scholar Gilbert Murray and Lady Mary Howard, daughter of the 9th Earl of Carlisle. He was educated at Charterhouse School and New College, Oxford (Classical Scholarship and Charles Oldham Prize). In 1927, he married Pauline Mary Newton, daughter of the artist of Algernon Newton. Their daughters were writers Ann Paludan (1928–2014) and Venetia Murray (1932–2004). His sister, the writer Rosalind Murray (1890–1967), was the first wife of Arnold J. Toynbee.

Professional career
Murray was Editor of Oxford Outlook from 1920–23. He was Equerry to H.I.H. Yasuhito, Prince Chichibu of Japan during his visit to Europe. As a journalist, he covered the Spanish Civil War from the Republican side, making radio broadcasts from Valencia. His biography of David Lloyd George, L. G. was published in 1932.

Political career
Murray was employed at the Liberal Campaign Department in 1927. He was Liberal candidate at the 1928 St Marylebone by-election. He was Liberal candidate for the Argyllshire division at the 1929 and 1935 General Elections.

Murray became involved in anti-fascist activism after Hitler's rise to power and in 1936 managed to incite riot by heckling the British fascist Oswald Mosley during a speech at Oxford. He was subsequently tried and convicted of breach of the peace in a proceeding described by the philosopher Isaiah Berlin as a disastrous miscarriage of justice.

Death and legacy
In 1937 Murray was sent to Valencia by the International News Service to report on the Spanish Civil War, but his dispatches failed to impress his employers and he was fired after a few months. According to Kate Mangan in her memoir Never More Alive, the loss of his job and an unrequited infatuation with a mysterious British socialite called Mary Mulliner plunged Murray into depression. He took to drinking heavily and ended up with a severe bout of pneumonia. He died on the British hospital ship SS Maine as he was being evacuated to Marseilles. Claud Cockburn claimed that Murray was actually bitten to death by his pet monkey as he lay in a drunken stupor in his hotel room in Valencia; Sefton Delmer in Trail Sinister suggested a rather more sordid relationship with the animal.

Murray provided Evelyn Waugh with the model and first name for his anti-hero, Basil Seal, star of the novels Black Mischief and Put Out More Flags. He was also the model for Jasper Aspect in Wigs on the Green by Nancy Mitford.