Vice Admiral George Murray (22 August 1741 – 17 October 1797) was a
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
officer and politician. He was the third son of the Jacobite general
Lord George Murray.
Naval career
Murray joined the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
in 1758 as a midshipman.
[George Murray at Oxford Dictionary of National biography]
/ref> In 1765 he became commander of the sloop
A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...
HMS Ferret.[ Promoted ]Captain
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
he commanded HMS ''Renown'', HMS ''Adventure'', HMS ''Levant'' and HMS ''Cleopatra''.[ He commanded the ''Cleopatra'' at the Battle of Dogger Bank in 1781.] From 1782 he commanded HMS ''Irresistible''.[
He was elected ]Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
for Perth burghs in 1790 but gave up his seat in 1796.[ Resuming his naval career he commanded HMS ''Defence'' from 1790.][ He was appointed Commander-in-Chief at ]Chatham
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in 1792 and went on to command HMS ''Duke'' and then HMS ''Glory''.[ He was made ]Commander-in-Chief, North American Station
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in 1794, establishing a permanent Royal Naval base at St. George's Town, at the East End of Bermuda
)
, anthem = "God Save the King"
, song_type = National song
, song = " Hail to Bermuda"
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, image_map2 =
, mapsize2 =
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, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
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(a colony
In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the ''metropole, metropolit ...
in British North America
British North America comprised the colonial territories of the British Empire in North America from 1783 onwards. English overseas possessions, English colonisation of North America began in the 16th century in Newfoundland (island), Newfound ...
), with Admiralty House at Rose Hill, the ships of the squadron reaching ''Murray's Anchorage'' (named for him) in the lagoon enclosed by Bermuda's barrier reach via the newly discovered Hurd's Channel, and with various sites around the town acquired by the navy, including Convict Bay (below ''Barrack Hill'' at St. George's Garrison
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), Admiralty Island
Admiralty Island is an island in the Alexander Archipelago in Southeast Alaska, at . It is long and wide with an area of , making it the seventh-largest island in the United States and the 132nd largest island in the world. It is one of the ...
, and ''Naval Tanks'' (acquisition of land at Bermuda's West End also began in the 1790s for the longer term goal of the navy was the construction of the Royal Naval Dockyard with which Bermuda was to be elevated to an Imperial fortress
Imperial fortress was the designation given in the British Empire to four colonies that were located in strategic positions from each of which Royal Navy squadrons could control the surrounding regions and, between them, much of the planet.
His ...
).[ He almost completely cleared North American waters of French men-of-war and privateers.][ He returned to England in 1796 and died the following year.][
]
Family
In 1784 he married Hon. Wilhelmina King, daughter of Thomas King, 5th Baron King
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; they had no children.[
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Murray, George
1741 births
1797 deaths
Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Scottish constituencies
British MPs 1790–1796
Royal Navy vice admirals
George
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People from Perthshire
Royal Navy personnel of the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War