B. Christie-Murray

Updated: 27 March 2010: Thanks to Alison Christian, I can confirm that B. Christie-Murray is Elizabeth. More information below the original text.

More from the pages of Swift Annual...

One credit in Swift Annual 7 (1960) reads simply B. Christie-Murray and I'm going to take a stab in the dark here... I think the B is short for Betty and the author is one Elizabeth Christie Murray who is credited with a book of poems, When Soft Voices Die, published in Harrow-on-the-Hill in 1967.

The combination of names makes me wonder if she is related to David Christie-Murray. Or, rather, the two David Christie-Murrays as there seems to be more than one. I found a profile of one David Christie Murray (13 April 1847-1 August 1907) here which discusses a journalist and novelist of that name, best known for his war correspondence on the Russo-Turkish war in 1877-78 and as the author of Joseph's Coat (1881), Val Strange (1882) and Aunt Rachel (1886). Allan Hubin's Crime Fiction Bibliography lists over 50 titles some of which can be found as free e-books online (e.g. Aunt Rachel, In Direst Peril and Joseph's Coat). He doesn't seem to be directly related to...

The Rev. David Hugh Arthur Christie-Murray (12 July 1913- ), author of books about theological and paranormal subjects whose first book, Heraldry in the Churches of Beckenham appeared in 1954 but who became rather more prolific in the 1960s, some of his heraldry books being illustrated by Dan Escott of Look and Learn fame.

Wild stabs in the dark, of course, but that's where most research of this type starts...

Updated: 27 March 2010

As well as the helpful comments to the original post, I've also heard from Alison Christian with the sad news that her father, David Christie-Murray, died on 20 March 2010. As well as being a writer himself, he was the grandson of the Victorian David Christie-Murray, which is why I stumbled when it came to finding a direct link between the two. David Christie-Murray (1847-1907) had four children, two sons and two daughters. The eldest son was Dudley Murray (1893-1924) who married Miriam Violet Hume in 1912. He died of wounds received in the Battle of the Somme; it was some years before he succumbed to them, eventually dying abroad in 1924 at the age of 31.

David Hugh Arthur Christie-Murray (1913-2010) was their son, born in London and was married in 1942 to Ena Louise Elizabeth Mumford, known to her family as Betty, hence the B. Christie-Murray byline. She was born in circa 1915, the daughter of Dr Edward Rainsford Mumford. She died on 13 January 1967, aged 52.

David Christie-Murray has a few interesting sidelights which are worth mentioning. He was the author of A History of Heresy (New English Library, 1976) and a contributor to The Unexplained, the part-work published by Orbis in 1980-83, as well as writing books and articles on heraldry, the Bible, reincarnation and astrology under his own name and the pen names Hugh Arthur and Hugh Christie.

Allison would be interested in getting in touch with the ladies who left comments as they must be distant cousins, so if Penelope, victoriamarie or Judith are reading, perhaps you could drop me a note to my e-mail address (top left, below the photo).