Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Flying Officer Lee Cameron Lathrop Murray enlisted in the RAAF on 14 Deceember 1925 as a Cadet at The Melbourne University and was attached to Flying Sqaudron No 1. He had served with the CMF from 1923 as a Private whilst an Engineering Student at Trinity College, Unversity of Melbourne. On 1 April 1926 he was appointed Pilot Officer attached to No1 Squadron and in November that year embarked for England on board SSThemistocles. On 17 April 1927 Pilot Officer Murray was attached to the RAF on a short term commission with No 4 Sqaudron - he had completed three months at No 1 Flying Training School Point Cook. Appointed Flying Officer in October 1927, in January 1928 he was attached to No 20 Squadron India and in May 1929 relinquished his commission. Flying Officr Murray then enlisted in the RAAF on 4 September 1929 and transferred to the Reserves on 1 July 1931. On 7 August 1939 he relinquished his commission on completion of service.

Born in 1904 in Melbourne Victoria, Lee was the youngest of two children of Dr Hugh Lathrop Murray (b1869 in Ararat, Victoria) and first wife Mary Ann MacInnes (b1868 in Crower, South Australia). Hugh (a Medical Practitoner) and Mary married in 1898 in Melbourne, Victoria. Following Mary's suicide in 1916, Hugh served in the AIF in WWI and in 1918 remarried - to Nursing Sister Eila Isable Calvert (b1883 in Bendigo, Victoria) - Eila had also served in WWI.

Lee attended Melbourne Church of England Grammar Scool before undertaking Engineering Studies at the  University on Melbourne in 1923, where he enlisted in the Air Cadets. While based in Peshawar, India in 1928, Lee married Nancy Clouston (b1906 in Stanthorpe, QLD). Following his service, Lee and Nancy lived in Hertfordshire, England where Lee was General Manager at de Haviland Aircraft Coy. In 1929 he and Nancy flew his Moth aeroplane from India ro Camooweal QLD en route to Melbourne. In the 1940s Lee was General Manager of de Haviland in Canada and by 1954 he and Nancy had settled at Franklin in Tasmania where Lee was a Farmer. Following Nancy's death in 1968, Lee remarried - Ruth Dewslap Lilley (nee Walker; b1913 in Lancashire, England) - Ruth was a Widow. Lee and Nancy settled in Hobart, Tasmania where Lee died in 1980 and Ruth in 2008.