He served as a junior officer throughout World War I on Canadian and British ships, and witnessed the surrender of the German fleet at Scapa Flow.

Murray commenced his World War II service as Deputy Chief of Naval Staff, playing a key role in negotiations with the United States and the UK on rapidly expanding the Canadian Navy.

On 14 August 1914, immediately following the outbreak of World War I, Murray was assigned to the protected cruiser HMCS Niobe, the largest ship in the Royal Canadian Navy at that time.

[7] Four of Murray's Naval College classmates were sent to the Royal Navy armoured cruiser HMS Good Hope, and were killed off the coast of South America on 1 November 1914 at the Battle of Coronel—becoming the first Canadian-service casualties of World War I.

He spent the last two years of World War I as Assistant Navigating Officer in the armoured cruiser HMS Leviathan, from January 1917 as lieutenant, where he helped plan troop convoys across the Atlantic that avoided the threat from German U-boats.

[10] Murray ended World War I in the North Sea aboard the battleship HMS Agincourt, and witnessed the surrender of the German fleet at Scapa Flow.

With the downsizing of the Royal Canadian Navy,[12] and given his recent marriage to Jean Chaplin Scott in Westmount, Quebec on 10 October 1921, Murray considered a civilian career—and in 1924 qualified as master of a foreign-going vessel.

[14][15] In January 1925, Murray was promoted to lieutenant-commander and spent two years at the Royal Canadian Navy's main training base at HMCS Stadacona in Halifax.

He returned to the UK in 1927, for a tour aboard the battlecruiser HMS Tiger, and then he spent 1928 studying at the Royal Naval Staff College at Greenwich.

[16] Upon return to Canada in January 1929, Murray was promoted to commander and became the senior naval officer at CFB Esquimalt on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

In June 1936 Murray was sent back to the UK to work in the Admiralty Operations Division, and in December 1936 he started his final tour with the Royal Navy serving as executive officer aboard the former battleship HMS Iron Duke, where he participated in the 1937 Coronation Fleet Review.

From this HQ position, he played a key role in the build-up of the Navy from a starting point of six destroyers,[20] to its eventual wartime strength of approximately 332 vessels.

It was while he was working for the PJBD that he renewed his friendship with Commander James "Chummy" Prentice, who was shortly thereafter assigned the position of Senior Officer, Canadian Corvettes under Murray.

In parallel, a 99 year lease agreement was signed,[23] not contingent upon the supply of destroyers, providing the US with rights to establish naval bases in Bermuda and Newfoundland, which was at that time a British dominion.

While ashore for four months in the UK, Murray was given the unusual title of Commodore Commanding Canadian Ships and Establishments in the United Kingdom, and liaised closely with the Admiralty in the planning of an Atlantic strategy.

[26] On his return to Canada, and at the request of British Admiral Sir Dudley Pound,[27] on 13 June 1941 Murray was put in charge of the Newfoundland Escort Force based out of St John's.

This was interpreted as a territorial claim on behalf of General Charles de Gaulle, thereby creating a diplomatic incident between France, Canada and the United States.

[37] Still headquartered in Halifax, Murray commanded all Allied air and naval forces involved in convoy protection between Canada and a point south of Greenland, until the end of the war in Europe in 1945.

[38] A personal highlight of this period occurred on 14 September 1943, when Murray gave an impromptu guided tour of Halifax to the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Churchill and his family, together with the First Sea Lord Dudley Pound, boarded HMS Renown in Halifax Harbour for their return voyage to the United Kingdom following consultations with US President Franklin D.

Murray's moment of singular pride came in this period, when the largest convoy of World War II, HX 300 sailed for the UK via New York on 17 July 1944, with 167 merchant ships in 19 columns.

[44] James Lorimer Ilsley, the Acting Prime Minister of Canada, responded quickly to the situation and on 10 May appointed Justice Kellock to chair a Royal Commission into the disorders.

[47] Murray himself felt that responsibility lay mainly with the civil authorities of Halifax,[32] and he was frustrated that the Kellock Commission effectively placed the Navy on trial without providing him or his officers with an opportunity to defend themselves.

The Government made an attempt to leave the Admiral with his honour intact: "It would be a regrettable thing if, resultant upon the Halifax disturbances, the truly great services of this officer and those under his command were to be forgotten by the people of Canada.

He received a letter on 6 September 1945 informing him that "the recent developments which have taken place in relation to the state of the war have materially changed the situation of the Armed Forces.

He remained active in his retirement, qualifying as a lawyer at the Middle Temple on 17 November 1949,[52] and, with his specialty in maritime law, he represented the British government at the 1950 enquiry into the accidental sinking of SS Hopestar.

Since Murray's death, a number of commemorative steps have been taken, including the ceremonial naming in his honour of the Canadian Naval Operations School (CFNOS) building at CFB Halifax on 6 September 1985.

In the autumn of 1941 young volunteer reserve officers who had never seen salt water before the war took command of corvettes manned by 88 men—the number of white and black keys on a piano and each with his own peculiar note—and took their full part in the Battle of the Atlantic.