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Len Murray
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{{Short description|British politician and peer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific-prefix = [[The Right Honourable]] | name = The Lord Murray of Epping Forest | honorific-suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|OBE|PC|size=100%}} | office = [[General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress|General-Secretary of the TUC]] | term_start = 1973 | term_end = 1984 | predecessor = [[Vic Feather]] | successor = [[Norman Willis]] | office1 = [[Assistant General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress|Assistant General-Secretary of the TUC]] | term_start1 = 1969 | term_end1 = 1973 | predecessor1 = [[Vic Feather]] | successor1 = [[Norman Willis]] | office2 = [[Member of the House of Lords]]<br/>[[Lord Temporal]] | term_start2 = 14 February 1985 | term_end2 = 20 May 2004<br/>[[Life peer]]age | birth_date = {{Birth date|1922|8|2|df=y}} | birth_place = [[Hadley, Shropshire|Hadley]], [[Shropshire]], England | death_date = {{Death date and age|2004|5|20|1922|8|2|df=y}} | death_place = [[Loughton, Essex]], England | birthname = Lionel Hodskinson | nationality = [[United Kingdom|British]] | party = [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] | otherparty = [[Communist Party of Great Britain|CPGB]] | alma_mater = [[New College, Oxford]] | spouse = {{Marriage|Heather Woolf|1945}}<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.friendsofeppingforest.org.uk/contacts.htm |title=www.friendsofeppingforest.org.uk |access-date=9 January 2016 |archive-date=5 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305105811/http://www.friendsofeppingforest.org.uk/contacts.htm |url-status=dead}}</ref> | children = 4, including [[David Murray (RAF officer)|David Murray]] }} '''Lionel Murray, Baron Murray of Epping Forest''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|OBE|PC}} (2 August 1922 β 20 May 2004) was a British [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] politician and [[trade union]] leader. He served as the [[General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress]] from 1973 to 1984. ==Early life== Murray was born in [[Hadley, Shropshire|Hadley]], [[Shropshire]], the son of a young unmarried woman, Lorna Hodskinson, and was brought up by a local nurse, Mary Jane Chilton.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://doi.org/10.1093/notesj/gju137 | doi=10.1093/notesj/gju137 | title=The Origins of some Trade Unionists | date=2014 | last1=Davies | first1=E. J. | journal=Notes and Queries | volume=61 | issue=4 | pages=570β573 }}</ref> He attended [[Wellington, Shropshire|Wellington]] Grammar School, read English at [[Queen Mary College, London]], and then joined the [[British Army]].<ref>[https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/93772 Geoffrey Goodman, "Murray, Lionel <nowiki>[Len]</nowiki>, Baron Murray of Epping Forest", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''.]</ref> ===Army=== In the [[Second World War]] Murray was [[Officer (armed forces)|commissioned]] in the [[King's Shropshire Light Infantry]] in April 1943 and took part in the [[Normandy landings]] on D-Day. Six days later, Murray was badly wounded and in October 1944 was invalided out of the army with the rank of [[lieutenant]].<ref>[http://www.unithistories.com/officers/Army_officers_M02.html www.unithistories.com]</ref> ===Demobilisation=== Murray worked at an engineering works in [[Wolverhampton]] as storekeeper, before leaving to sell ''The [[Morning Star (British newspaper)|Daily Worker]]'' on street corners and joining the [[Communist Party of Great Britain|Communist Party]]. Whilst selling ''The Daily Worker'', he encountered his former headmaster, who informed him he was wasting his time. Determined to improve himself, shortly afterwards Murray gained a place at [[New College, Oxford]], where he graduated with a First in [[Philosophy, Politics and Economics|PPE]] after two years' study under tutors including the future MP [[Dick Crossman]] and [[John Hicks|Sir John Hicks]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20130726160504/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/lord-murray-of-epping-forest-6169393.html Independent obituary: Lord Murray of Epping Forest]</ref> ==Career== Murray started as a manager for a [[Liverpool]] catering firm. He was a [[Trades Union Congress]] (TUC) employee from 1947, when he joined as an assistant in the economics department. Seven years later he was promoted to head of the department. He was elected assistant general-secretary in 1969. In 1970 he was invited to deliver the Marlow (Scotland) Lecture to the [[Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland]]. He chose the subject ''Trade Unions and the State β 1964 to 1970 in Retrospect''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Marlow (Scotland) Lectures|url=http://www.iesis.org/marlow.html|publisher=[[Institution of Engineers & Shipbuilders in Scotland]]|accessdate=14 March 2017}}</ref> He became [[General Secretary of the TUC]] in 1973, leading it during the [[Winter of Discontent]] and the confrontations with [[Margaret Thatcher]]'s government. ==Personal life== Murray married Heather Woolf, a nurse, in 1945. The couple had two daughters and two sons, the younger of whom, [[David Murray (RAF officer)|David]], pursued a successful career in the [[Royal Air Force]].<ref>[http://thepeerage.com/p64706.htm#i647055 ''A genealogical survey of the peerage of Britain as well as the royal families of Europe'', www.thepeerage.com]</ref> They lived in [[Loughton]], Essex. Murray served as a TUC officer until his retirement in 1984, three years early. Upon his retirement in early May 1984, he made the following statement β "There are places to go, books to read, flowers to smell and trees to look at. I would like to walk through Epping Forest".{{cn|date=May 2022}} He was active in Loughton Methodist Church. Murray died in hospital in 2004 from septicaemia and [[pneumonia]]. ==Honours== Murray was appointed [[Officer of the Order of the British Empire]] (OBE) in the [[1966 New Year Honours]].<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=43854 |date=1 January 1966 |page=13 |supp=y}}</ref> Sworn of the [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom|Privy Council]] in 1976,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=46916 |date=1 June 1976 |page=7823 |supp=y}}</ref> he was created a [[life peer]] as '''Baron Murray of Epping Forest''', of [[Telford]] in the [[County of Shropshire]], on 14 February 1985.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=50048 |date=27 February 1985 |page=2799}}</ref> The Murray Hall in Loughton was named after him, and a [[blue plaque]] to him was unveiled on the family house, 29 The Crescent, in January 2019. ==References== {{Reflist}} ==External links== * [http://politics.guardian.co.uk/unions/story/0,12189,1221707,00.html News of Murray's death] ''([[The Guardian]])'' * [https://web.archive.org/web/20060715170354/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/05/22/db2201.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/05/22/ixportal.html Obituary of Len Murray] ''([[Daily Telegraph]])'' {{s-start}} {{S-npo|union}} {{succession box | title = Assistant General Secretary of the TUC | years = 1969 β 1973 | before = [[Vic Feather]] | after = [[Norman Willis]] }} {{succession box | title = [[General Secretary of the TUC]] | years = 1973 β 1984 | before = [[Vic Feather]] | after = [[Norman Willis]] }} {{s-end}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Murray of Epping Forest, Lionel Murray, Baron}} [[Category:1922 births]] [[Category:2004 deaths]] [[Category:Alumni of New College, Oxford]] [[Category:British Army personnel of World War II]] [[Category:People from Telford]] [[Category:King's Shropshire Light Infantry officers]] [[Category:General secretaries of the Trades Union Congress]] [[Category:Trade unionists from Shropshire]] [[Category:Labour Party (UK) life peers]] [[Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom]] [[Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire]] [[Category:Deaths from emphysema]] [[Category:Deaths from pneumonia in England]] [[Category:Methodist local preachers]] [[Category:Life peers created by Elizabeth II]]
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