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Lt Col Eric Philip Murphy OBE

Eric Philip Murphy was born in Middleton near Cork on 29th May 1921 to father Leo Murphy and mother Violet Millicent Featherstone Haugh Frampton of Moreton in Dorset. Leo was a medical doctor in the British Army and the family moved to India when Eric was a small child. He returned to England to attend Ampleforth School, then joined the Royal Artillery shortly before start of the Second World War.

Career After six weeks intensive officer training at Woolwich his service career began in charge of some of the big guns at London Docks.

According to his collection of wartime photographs, he traveled in 1942 by ship to the Eastern Mediterranean and Alexandria. In May he was in Abouquir. In June he was in El Bassa. In July he was in Haifa, Naharya and Tiberias. In August he was in Artouz. In December he was in Sarafand, Lydda and Tel Aviv. At some point he was in Tobruk, but no date is given in the photographs.

In 1943, in March he was in Troodus and Trimiklini, then he was in Cyprus for part of March and April. In June he was back to Sarafand. In July he was in the Jordan Valley and the Syrian Desert, then in August he was in Artouz and Damascus.

1944 took him to Italy, Albergoac Riviera and Eboli in July, and Amalfi and Maiori in August. By March 1945 he was in Bagnocavello, then Venice and Adige in May. There is a photo of him by a German surrendered command post between the River Po and Adige in May 1945, and while alive he often said that he was temporarily mayor of a recently surrendered Italian town during the war, but it is not known which town that was. By August he was in Cortina, Mesurina, Passa Mauris and Passa Di Croce, then Cordovado in September. He was in Abano in September, November and December. 1946 took him to Amalfi in July and Pordenone in November where he remained until 1947 at least.

By 1947 he was back in the UK, based at camp Castlemartin Pembroke. In 1950 he was on board the Empire Trooper from Southampton to Hong Kong via Port Said and Aden, and he then served in the Korean War. At some point in 1951 he was in Singapore, and again at some point during 1952 he was in Japan.

After Korea he joined the territorial army and served the army cadet force in North Wales until the mid 1960s, then he headed up the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Army Cadet Force until his retirement in 1986. He was awarded ad OBE in the mid 1970s.

Personal life Although he seldom talked about Korea, Eric left active service with a serious alcohol problem which led to driving offenses as a young man, and financial difficulties in later life. He was involved in a serious car crash in the late 1950s which not only killed two dogs in his car, but left him with several broken bones. He said that he was made to watch Laurel and Hardy films during his recovery to make him laugh. This helped repair his broken ribs but was highly painful. He retained a limp for the rest of his life and required further hip surgery during his retirement.

Eric was devoted to his mother and sister, Constance Simon, and during his bachelor years enjoyed spending time with his sister and her daughter, Harriet Simon, and son, Hugh Simon. In 1961 Eric was best-man at a wedding and began a relationship with the bridesmaid, Carol Susan Barker. Having met in May Eric married Carol in November 1961 and they had four children together. The family moved from Ruthin to the New Forest in 1967, but Eric's addiction to whiskey made family life volatile and contributed to the end of the marriage in 1981. After living in temporary lodgings in Southampton for five years, he retired to Maiden Newton in Dorset. During the early years of his marriage Eric became estranged from his sister, but was reunited with her during his retirement. Although secretive, he was also sociable and his retirement was spent meeting up with wider family members, and re-visiting Cork and Italy.

Eric was a practising Roman Catholic throughout his life, and is known to have had a black dog named Sahagan during the war, and a red setter named Dante in the early 1960s. He was also an enthusiastic supporter of horse racing.

In 1994 he manifested the signs of dementia, and his children supported him through first a residential home, then a nursing home in Dorchester area. He died of a heart attack in his sleep in early Spring 1997.

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