Murray, Francis Patrick (Frank)
Lance Corporal
No. 26545, 10th Battalion, Dublin Fusiliers, transferred to
No. 228110, Labour Corps
Died in service on Thursday 27 December 1917 (aged 28)
Buried:
Bangor Cemetery, Newtownards Road, Bangor, Co. Down (Grave 6P. 113A)
Commemorated:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
BIOGRAPHY
In the Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914 – 1919 database it is recorded that Francis Patrick Murray was born in Bramley, Leeds, Yorkshire, lived in Farrell Street, Kells, Co Meath and enlisted in Dublin. In civilian life Frank worked as a chemist, and in 1914 he passed his Pharmaceutical Licence Examination with honours.
Lance Corporal Francis Patrick Murray served with the 10th Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers before being transferred to the Labour Corps. He was admitted to No. 4 Casualty Clearing Station (CCS), Varennes on 18 February 1917 suffering from trench feet.
In the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) Debt of Honour Website it is recorded that Lance Corporal Francis Patrick Murray was a son of the late Richard and Elizabeth Mary Murray, and he was 28 when he died on 27 December 1917.
In Civil Registration death records, it is recorded that he was 19 when he died of valvular disease of the heart on 26 December 1917 in the South Camp at Clandeboye.
Lance Corporal Francis Patrick Murray (No. 228110) was buried in Bangor Cemetery, Newtownards Road, Bangor.
Francis Patrick Murray’s birth was registered in the first quarter of 1889 in Bramley, Leeds, and he was a son of Richard and Elizabeth Mary Murray (nee Trevor) who were married on 8 July 1879 in St John’s Roman Catholic Church, Banbury, Oxfordshire. Richard Murray, an ‘Officer of Her Majesty’s Inland Revenue’, was born in Co Westmeath. In 1881 Richard and Elizabeth Murray were living in New Grimsbury, Banbury, with their son Peter John Murray (aged 10 months), and Richard’s unmarried sister Annie Murray. Two more children were born in England – Richard Arthur and Francis Patrick, both in Bramley, Leeds. Richard Arthur Murray was born on 8 April 1887 (Good Friday) and baptised on 10 April 1887.
Richard Murray, a supervisor of Customs and Excise, was transferred to Ireland and their son William Joseph Murray was born on 27 August 1894 at 37 Munster Street, Dublin. He died of tuberculosis at 15 Clarence Avenue, Londonderry on 16 August 1911 (aged 17) and his father was with him when he died.
Francis Patrick Murray was eight when his mother, Elizabeth Mary Murray, died on 28 May 1897, some two months after the birth of her fourth son, Eugene Thomas Murray, who was born on 13 March 1897 at Monasterevin).
In 1901 the widowed Richard Murray was boarding in St Laurence’s Street, Drogheda
In 1901 some of his children were living at Richmond Terrace, Bray, Co Wicklow, with their married aunt, Maria Carroll – Richard Arthur (aged 13), Francis Patrick (aged 12), William Joseph (aged 6), and Eugene Thomas (aged 4). Also living there was Annie Dalton (aged 26).
Richard Murray and Annie Dalton were married on 28 November 1903 in Bray Roman Catholic Church, and by 1911 the Murray family was living in Clarence Avenue, Londonderry – Richard and Annie Murray (nee Dalton) with children William Joseph (aged 16), Eugene Thomas (aged 14), Kevin Aloysius (aged 5), and Josephine Maria (aged 3). Also living with them was Richard’s sister, Maria Carroll.
In 1911 Peter John Murray (Richard’s eldest son) and his wife Helen Mary Murray (nee Troy) and their children Elizabeth Mary Murray and James Richard Patrick Murray were living at 23 Lancaster Road, Forest Gate, West Ham, London, with Helen’s parents, Patrick Bernard and Ellen Frances Troy, and her brother Thomas John Troy. In 1921 Peter, Helen and family were living at 79 Boleyn Road, West Ham, London.
By 1911, Francis Patrick Murray was working in Dublin as an assistant Chemist. When he enlisted in the Army in Dublin, on 24 March 1916, he had been living in Kells, Co Meath, where he was working as a Pharmaceutical Chemist.
His father, Richard Murray, died of a cerebral tumour at 28 Botanic Road, Dublin on 25 October 1916 (aged 65).
Lance Corporal Francis Patrick Murray served with the 10th Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers, and on 25 March 1917 he was diagnosed with valvular disease of the heart in Huddersfield War Hospital. He was then transferred to the Labour Corps. He died in South Camp at Clandeboye on 27 December 1917, and was buried in Bangor New Cemetery. His headstone was erected by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and states that he served with the Royal Dublin Fusiliers.