JAMES MURRAY (GENERAL)

General 'Sir James (Wolfe) Murray', KCB (13 March 1853 – 17 October 1919), was a British officer serving as Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) during the first years of World War I.

Contents

Career

World War I

Ranks

References

Career

Murray attended Trinity College, Glenalmond, then Harrow (1867–1869). After graduating from the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich in 1872, he took a commission in the Royal Artillery. He also attended the Staff College.
He worked in the Intelligence Branch at Headquarters of Army 1884-1890 and was then Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General for Instruction at Aldershot 1894-1897.
He saw action in the Ashanti expedition in West Africa 1895-1896 and was then transferred to India where he served as Assistant Adjutant-General 1898-1899. He was appointed Assistant Quartermaster General (in charge of intelligence) at the Indian Headquarters in 1899, but was sent to South Africa the same year. He was a commander, lines of communication in Natal during the South African War 1899-1900 but then returned to his old position in India.
In 1903, he was made Quartermaster General and in 1904 a Master-General of the Ordinance. In 1907, he was appointed Commander, 9th (Secunderabad) Division in India which he commanded until 1911.
In 1912, he was an army representative on a British delegation to Russia set up by Parliament.
In 1913, he was appointed Commander-in-Chief in Scotland and the following year in South Africa before the outbreak of war.

World War I

Following the sudden death of General Sir Charles Douglas as Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) in October 1914, Murray was appointed as his replacement on 30 October 1914. As such he was a member of the Army Council, but it was not a very happy appointment as Murray was largely ineffectual and innocuous, leaving strategy to Field-Marshal Lord Kitchener as War Minister.
Following the failure of the Dardanelles campaign, Murray was replaced by General Sir Archibald Murray on 26 September 1915.
He subsequently was made chief of Eastern Command on 5 May 1916, relinquishing the position on 1 September 1917 to General Sir Henry Wilson.
He was the author of two handbooks on the Russian Army.

Ranks

★ Lieutenant (1872)

★ Captain (1881)

★ Lieutenant-General (1909)

★ General (1916)

References

★ Biography at Imperial College, London

★ The British Army in Great War