Hubert Murray

Sir John Hubert Plunkett Murray KCMG (29 December 1861 – 27 February 1940), usually known as Sir Hubert Murray, was a judge and Lieutenant-Governor of Papua from 1908 until his death at Samarai.

Murray was born in Sydney, the son of Irish-born Sir Terence Aubrey Murray (1810–73), and his second wife Agnes Ann, née Edwards; he was named after Terence Murray's friend John Hubert Plunkett. Hubert Murray was educated at a non-denominational school in Sydney, then attended a preparatory school in Melbourne in 1871. From 1872-1877 Murray attended Sydney Grammar School where he won several sporting prizes and was school captain in 1877. Murray then moved to England in 1878 and attended Brighton College (which expelled him after he punched a master) and Oxford (B.A., 1886).

Murray was a tall (6'3" or 190 cm), powerfully built man, who played rugby for the Harlequins and won the English amateur heavyweight boxing title.

In 1892 Murray became a legal draftsman for the Parliament of New South Wales but described his time there as "living death in Macquarie Street" and left in 1896 to lead a more adventurous life. He took an interest in the volunteer movement, and in 1898 was in command of the New South Wales Irish rifles. He was a Lieutenant-Colonel with the Australian Forces mounted infantry brigade in the Boer War. Murray held the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the Australian forces and of major in the Imperial service.

In 1904, Murray was appointed as a judge in what was still British New Guinea. He was appointed Acting Administrator in 1907 and Lieutenant-Governor in 1908, a position he held until his death at Samarai in 1940. When Murray first went to Papua there were 64 white residents. There were 90,000 square miles (230,000 km²) of territory, much of it unexplored jungle land, with many native tribes of whom some were cannibals and head-hunters.

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