David Christie Murray

Murray proposed in 1898 that the Anglo-American League look into erecting a statue of George Washington on British soil as a "national recognition of the justice of the cause in which he fought and a final signal of our amity with the American people".

Murray began a successful two year lecture tour of North America in 1894. The tour was billed as "Memory's Lucky Bag" (The Reminiscences of a Novelist) and "Leaves from the Notebook of a Novelist".

He was a performer in at least two of his plays, "Ned's Chum" (1891) and "The Chartist" (1892 or 1893). Murray's books and plays were popular on both sides of the Atlantic.

In the late 1890s Murray wrote a series of articles for the Daily News and the London Morning on the "Dreyfus Affair" in France. His investigative reporting may have played a hand in Capt. Albert Dreyfus' release from Devil's Island.

In 1889 Murray embarked on an extensive and ultimately well received lecture tour of Australia. While returning home early the next year he went missing. Some papers theorized that had stopped off in Mexico and had been murdered or maybe gone mad. Five months later Murray cabled friends in Canada to inform them that he had been working in Samoa as a guest of writer Robert Louis Stevenson. This was not the first time (nor the last) that a false report of his demise had appeared in the British press. Some years earlier newspapers had mistakenly reported that he died while covering the Russo-Turkish War. Years later they would falsely report that he had been murdered in San Francisco.

As early as 1885 his stories were being serialized in American newspapers. His last work "Theories of the Soul" was published after his death.

Of the many works he published during his Life's Atonement" (1879), "Joseph's Coat" (1881), "Val Strange" (1882), "By the Gate of the Sea" (1883), "Aunt Rachel "(1886), "The Weaker Vessel"(1888) and "Dangerous Catspaw" (1889) were among his most successful.

David Christie Murray was not only a successful journalist, author and playwright, he was also considered by many as one of the greatest lecturers of his day. The son of a printer, Murray began his writing career at the Wednesbury Advertiser and later the Birmingham Morning News. After relocating to London in 1873 he wrote for the Daily News, the World and the London Times. The latter as a special correspondent covering the Russo-Turkish War. While Murray was struggling to become established in London, John Lovell, of the Press Association, took pity on the cash strapped youth and invented some work for him. Lovell later sent him two guineas in a pill box with the instructions "Take immediately". Murray had not eaten in several days and had been sleeping at night on park benches. On returning to England after covering the Russo-Turkish War, Murray was asked to report directly to Prime Minister Gladstone on what he had seen. Murray attended the meeting still wearing his bearskin lined camel hair campaign overcoat. As Gladstone was helping him on with his overcoat after the meeting had concluded, he asked Murray where he had obtained such an interesting garment. After informing the P. M. that the coat came from Bulgaria, Gladstone replied that, while he had heard of Bulgarian atrocities, this was the first one that he had ever observed.