W.R.E. Murphy

William Richard English-Murphy, DSO MC known as W.R.E. Murphy (1890–1975) was an Irish soldier and policeman. He served as an officer with the British Army in the First World War and later in the National Army. In the Civil War he was second in overall command of the National Army from January to May 1923. He was first Irish Commissioner of the Dublin Metropolitan Police and the last Commissioner of the force before its merger with the Garda Síochána in 1925. Thereafter he was the Deputy Commissioner of the Gardaí until his retirement in 1955.

Murphy was born in Wexford in 1890. He joined the British Army in Belfast in 1915 as an officer cadet in the South Staffordshire Regiment. He served in the Battle of Loos in 1915 and was wounded, but returned to action for the start of the Battle of the Somme in July 1916. He became commanding officer of the 1st Battalion; the South Staffordshire Regiment in August 1918, reaching the rank of temporary lieutenant colonel. In 1918, his regiment were posted to the Italian Front, at the Piave River, where they were when the armistice was declared on 4 November 1918. He was granted the rank of substantive lieutenant colonel on the retired list on 16 May 1922.

After he returned to Ireland he resumed his career as a teacher. At some point he joined the Irish Republican Army – a guerrilla organisation fighting to end British rule in Ireland.

In December 1921, the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed between British and Irish leaders, resulting in the setting up of the Irish Free State. Conflict over the Treaty among Irish nationalists ultimately led to the outbeak of Civil War in June 1922.

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