Obituary
David Midddleton Murry [54-56]
Known as David Murry son of John Middleton Murry [JMM,] the famous but highly
unreadable poet by the third of his four wives, Betty.
David had a very unhappy childhood and it was rumoured that he was the one
person on the Ship who hated the holidays as he was often left at home by his
Father in a house without food and often only ate due to the generosity of
neighbours. His Father and Mother were divorced but prior to the divorce the
marriage had given rise to violence by both parties. David suffered.
He and I were both at Christ’s Hospital together and joined in the same term, Easter
1954.
His Father named him David after D H Lawrence. JMM together with Katherine
Mansfield, [New Zealand’s most famous author,] had shared a house with DHL and
his lover Frieda. Neither couple was at that time married; in fact both the women
were married to other men. It is rumoured the JMM had a homosexual relationship
at that time with DHL which to some extent is supported by the kissing of the two in
the Café Royal but the relationship was denied by JMM in later years.
This would account for David being homophobic. He took it out on an effeminate
cadet in Starboard Mizzen.
He was popular with his shipmates and rejoiced in the nickname, Dracula.
His passing is recorded in the autobiographical book by his half sister Katherine,
[named after Mansfield,] “Beloved Quixote” which was published in 1986. In it she
says that after HMS Conway he “drifted into the world of ner-do-wells and people on
the make.”
He died 1962. A petrol tanker he was driving exploded.
He left a Spanish wife and two children.
Roger Wickins 54/56