Growing up with the shadow of Churchill

There was a great talk at the Torquay Museum Society today. The speaker was Bill Murray, Chair of the Dartmoor Society, and a champion of all things Devon and the Moor. He was not speaking about that today though, but about his father and his childhood. 

Bill's father, Sgt. Edmund Murray, was a Metropolitan Police Special Branch officer. In 1950, the year that Bill was born, he became Sir Winston Churchill's bodyguard, a position he held until the Great Man's death in 1965. Edmund was often referred to as "Churchill's Shadow", but Bill did not really appreciate the significance of that title until fifty years later.

Sgt Edmund Murray was a remarkable man who started his working life in the French Foreign Legion. Later he joined the Met Police, and was assigned to Special Branch, becoming a bodyguard of the great man. Bill’s childhood was quite remarkable, but also normal, except his father was away a lot. His father claimed he got the job because he too liked to paint in oils, but it was a new hobby.
In the extra is Bill’s favourite photograph of the Churchills and his father. Bill is a fabulous speaker, lover of song and the spoken word, and likely to burst into song when appropriate. 
We had over 80 people in the audience. It is a privilege to know people  like Bill,  whose modest account made you feel like you were closely related to Churchill, and the many famous people his father met. In the photo are some of Winston’s paintbrushes and a half smoked cigar with a written provenance. Amazing to think that this Dartmoor man had such a start in life.