Basil Andrew Murray (1902 - 1937), was a British editor, journalist and Liberal Party politician.
Video Basil Murray
Background
Murray was the second son of the scholar Professor Gilbert and Lady Mary Howard, daughter of the 9th Earl of Carlisle. He was educated at Charterhouse School and New College, Oxford (Classical Scholarship and Charles Oldham Prize). In 1927 he married Pauline Mary Newton, daughter of the artist of Algernon Newton. Their daughters were the writers Ann Paludan (1928-2014) and Venetia Murray (1932-2004). His sister Rosalind was the first wife of Arnold J. Toynbee.
Maps Basil Murray
Professional career
Murray was Editor of Oxford Outlook from 1920-23. He was Equerry to H.I.H. Yasuhito, Prince Chichibu of Japan during his visit to Europe. As a journalist, he covered the Spanish Civil War from the Republican side, making radio broadcasts from Valencia.
Political career
Murray was employed at the Liberal Campaign Department in 1927. He was Liberal candidate at the St Marylebone by-election, 1928. He was Liberal candidate for the Argyllshire division at the 1929 and 1935 General Elections.
Murray became involved in anti-Fascist politics after Hitler's rise to power and in 1936 managed to incite a riot by heckling the British fascist Oswald Mosley during a speech at Oxford University. He was subsequently tried and convicted of breach of the peace in a proceeding described by the philosopher Isaiah Berlin as a disastrous miscarriage of justice.
Electoral record
Murray provided Evelyn Waugh with the model and first name for his anti-hero, Basil Seal, star of the novels Black Mischief and Put Out More Flags.
He died in Spain, purportedly of pneumonia. According to a memoir by journalist Claud Cockburn, however, Murray was bitten to death by his pet ape while lying in a drunken stupor in a Valencia hotel.. An alternative, and much more scandalous account in which he caught the pneumonia from close contact with the female ape, is given by Sefton Delmer, who devotes six pages to it.
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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