The Life and Work of Hugh Murray, Historian of York

Stephen Lewis, retired journalist and former YCT Trustee, interviews local historian David Poole about the life and research of his friend Hugh Murray, 1932-2013. The scope of Hugh’s discoveries and publications was amazing: from Tramways to Minster Monuments, from Public Conveniences to Heraldry. His seminal Photographs and Photographers of York 1844-1879, recently re-published, will be available to buy at the event.

The list of Hugh’s publications (York Historian no.30) runs to 33 items. As a Trustee of York Cemetery after 1987, he wrote its history – The Garden of Death - but also analysed the location of graves and took part in creating genealogies of York residents. David Poole, another local historian, worked closely with Hugh, particularly in opening up York Cemetery, where David still leads specialist walks.

Hugh Murray was a pupil at St Peter’s School and took a degree in Physics at Oxford, then immersed himself in a career as an engineer with British Rail, retiring to York in 1988. As a young man living in Norwich, he had come across a book of photographs contrasting the modern styling of ground-floor shop fronts in the city with the historically older architecture of the upper floors. It was his introduction to historical research and it would absorb him totally.

Hugh Murray had an encyclopaedic knowledge of York, with an extensive library of history books and thousands of his own photographs and postcards. He became a leading member of the Yorkshire Architectural and York Archaeological Society (chairman from 1991 to 2002, editor of York Historian from 1984 to 2000). He was actively involved with the Friends of York Minster, York Civic Trust, the Yorkshire Heraldry Society and the Friends of York Cemetery. This accumulation of knowledge about York meant that, once he began a course guiding a class for York Voluntary Guides around our city on foot, he continued it for 15 years without repeating anything!

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