Wyn Murray

George Wynyatt "Wyn" Murray (4 July 1908 – 21 December 1947) was an Australian rules footballer who played with Melbourne in the Victorian Football League (VFL).

Wyn Murray
Personal information
Full name George Wynyatt Murray
Date of birth (1908-07-04)4 July 1908
Place of birth Bendigo, Victoria
Date of death 21 December 1947(1947-12-21) (aged 39)
Place of death Fitzroy, Victoria
Original team(s) South Bendigo
Height 178 cm (5 ft 10 in)
Weight 81 kg (179 lb)
Position(s) Defender
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1929–34 Melbourne 65 (4)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1934.
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Family

The son of Alfred Wynyatt Murray (1868-1936),[1] and Johanna Murray (1874-1940), née Gleeson,[2] George Wynyatt Murray was born on 4 July 1908.

He married Lexie Avenel Thornton in 1932 at Brunswick, Victoria.

His daughter, Patricia Joan, born 1932, was a winner of the Australian Dancing Championship many times and also represented Australia overseas, with her husband, Ron Shelton.[3] His son, Peter Thornton, born 1935, graduated from Duntroon in 1955, RMIT (Communications Engineering) in 1961 and was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. He commanded an RA Signals unit in the Vietnam War in 1968 and then went on to a successful business career.

Education

He was educated at Marist College Bendigo.

Football

South Bendigo (BFL)

Murray played for South Bendigo in the Bendigo Football League in 1927 and 1928.[4] In 1927, his first senior season, he was chosen on the half-forward flank in the combined BFL side defeated a VFL team, in Bendigo, on 13 August 1927.[5]

Melbourne (VFL)

Murray was cleared to Melbourne in 1929,[6] and gave the club solid service in six seasons. Murray, a left footer, missed just one game in his first two years with the club but was in and out of the side after that.[7] A half back flanker, he represented the VFL against South Australia in 1933.[8]

Preston (VFA)

Cleared from Melbourne to Preston in 1934,[9] he won their best player award in 1937.[10] He retired from the game that season,[11][12] but returned in 1938 when appointed captain-coach for the year.[13]

Police force
The (Brisbane) Telegraph, 26 February 1944.[14]

Football was not a professional sport in the 1930s; and Murray had an extended career in the Victorian Police Force.[11]

In 1944 he was stabbed while attempting to assist a young woman in distress in the Snowden Gardens, across Princes Bridge (the site of Hamer Hall, Melbourne today).[15]

Death

No longer in the Police Force, he died (possibly of alcoholic poisoning) in a shabby rooming house in Fitzroy, Victoria on 21 December 1947.[16][17]

Footnotes
  1. Deaths: Murray, The Age, (Thursday, 30 July 1936), p.1.
  2. Deaths: Murray, The Argus, (Tuesday, 30 July 1940), p.4.
  3. "Country interest in engagement". The Argus. 26 December 1952. p. 9. Retrieved 4 February 2011.
  4. South Bendigo Club, The Age, (Monday, 5 November 1928), p.4; South Bendigo Club, The Age, (Friday, 18 January 1929), p.8.
  5. Bendigo's Strong Eighteen, The Weekly Times, (Saturday, 6 August 1927), p.76; One Point Victory: League Defeated at Bendigo, The Argus, (Monday, 15 August 1927), p.6.
  6. Bendigo League, The Age, (Friday, 12 April 1929), p.6.
  7. "Wyn Murray". AFL Tables.
  8. Holmesby & Main (2007).
  9. League Permits, The Argus, (Thursday, 5 July 1934), p.14.
  10. "Preston trophies". The Argus. 8 September 1937. p. 9. Retrieved 4 February 2011.
  11. "Wyn Murray to retire". The Argus. 7 September 1937. p. 14. Retrieved 4 February 2011.
  12. "Murray Best and Fairest". The Argus. 14 August 1937. p. 26. Retrieved 4 February 2011.
  13. "League games for 1938". The Argus. 27 January 1938. p. 18. Retrieved 4 February 2011.
  14. Stabbed by Allied Soldier, The (Brisbane) Telegraph, (Saturday, 26 February 1944), p.2.
  15. Detectives Seeking Gardens Stabber, The Herald, (Saturday, 26 February 1944), p.3.
  16. Dead Man was Former Detective, The Argus, (Tuesday, 23 December 1947), p.3; Sport Idol dies in Slum House, The (Sydney) Truth, (Sunday, 28 December 1947), p.28; Ex-Detective Found Dead, The (Perth) Daily News, (Tuesday, 23 December 1947), p.12.
  17. Deaths: Murray, The Age, (Wednesday, 24 December 1947), p.7.

References
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