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Mad Harry: Harry Murray: Australia's Most Decorated Soldier
Harry Murray's Medals: VC DSO and Bar DCM 1914-15 Star; War Medal; Victory Medal; War Medal 1939-45; Australia Service Medal 1939-45; King George VI Coronation Medal; Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal; Croix De Guerre; (Separate) CMG.
An Australian, Harry Murray, was the most highly decorated of all the millions of infantrymen who served in the armies of Great Britain and its empire in World War I. He remains the most highly decorated Australian soldier ever.
Murray's ancestors, who included convicts, were early settlers of northern Tasmania. In 1908, Murray was forced to leave the struggling family farm and sought work in Western Australia. At the outbreak of war in 1914, he was cutting railway sleepers in the karri forests of the south-west when he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) as a private soldier in the 16th Battalion. At the end of the war, in 1918, he commanded a machine gun battalion as a lieutenant colonel and had been awarded six decorations, including the coveted Victoria Cross.
Known admiringly throughout the AIF as "Mad Harry" because of his fearlessness in patrols in No-Mans-Land and his ferocity in hand-to-hand fighting, Murray was far from "mad". He planned attacks and trained his men with great care and always sought to avoid casualties.
After the war, Murray led a secluded life on sheep stations in the Queensland bush. He rarely attended Anzac Day services or unit reunions, avoided publicity, and protected his privacy. Little has been known about him. The authors received much help from Murray's family when writing this book and many details of the life and character of Australia's most decorated fighting soldier are revealed for the first time.
An Australian, Harry Murray, was the most highly decorated of all the millions of infantrymen who served in the armies of Great Britain and its empire in World War I. He remains the most highly decorated Australian soldier ever.
Murray's ancestors, who included convicts, were early settlers of northern Tasmania. In 1908, Murray was forced to leave the struggling family farm and sought work in Western Australia. At the outbreak of war in 1914, he was cutting railway sleepers in the karri forests of the south-west when he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) as a private soldier in the 16th Battalion. At the end of the war, in 1918, he commanded a machine gun battalion as a lieutenant colonel and had been awarded six decorations, including the coveted Victoria Cross.
Known admiringly throughout the AIF as "Mad Harry" because of his fearlessness in patrols in No-Mans-Land and his ferocity in hand-to-hand fighting, Murray was far from "mad". He planned attacks and trained his men with great care and always sought to avoid casualties.
After the war, Murray led a secluded life on sheep stations in the Queensland bush. He rarely attended Anzac Day services or unit reunions, avoided publicity, and protected his privacy. Little has been known about him. The authors received much help from Murray's family when writing this book and many details of the life and character of Australia's most decorated fighting soldier are revealed for the first time.
276 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
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April 19, 2024
Mad Harry Murray, VC, CMG, DSO*, DCM, MiD, CdG. Henry "Mad Harry" Murray was the most highly decorated (combat awards) soldier in the British Commonwealth.
He won the VC for an attack on Stormy Trench in 1917, about which he wrote later: "A mantle of frozen snow flooded by rich moonlight had removed all the ugly scars of previous battles and everything showed out with startling clarity against that illumined sheeting ... France is indeed beautiful
At Bullecourt he won a bar to his DSO and, by the end of the war, the machine-gun private had become a lieutenant-colonel. Bean called him "the most distinguished fighting officer in the AIF".
King George V appointed him Commander in the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG).
The historian of the 16th Battalion wrote of him: 'To Murray belongs the honour of rising from a machine-gun private to the command of a machine-gun battalion of 64 guns, and of receiving more fighting decorations than any other infantry soldier in the British Army in the Great War'. The 13th Battalion historian noted: 'Not only was the 13th proud of him but the whole brigade was, from general to Digger. His unconscious modesty won him still greater admiration…Murray's courage was not a reckless exposure to danger like that of Jacka or Sexton who didn't know fear'. He was a sensitive man who believed in discipline and wrote that it transformed thousands of men'—nervy and highly-strung like myself—enabling them to do the work which without discipline, they would have been quite incapable of performing'. Bean called him 'the most distinguished fighting officer in the A.I.F.' His portrait, by George Bell is in the Australian War Memorial, Canberra.
He won the VC for an attack on Stormy Trench in 1917, about which he wrote later: "A mantle of frozen snow flooded by rich moonlight had removed all the ugly scars of previous battles and everything showed out with startling clarity against that illumined sheeting ... France is indeed beautiful
At Bullecourt he won a bar to his DSO and, by the end of the war, the machine-gun private had become a lieutenant-colonel. Bean called him "the most distinguished fighting officer in the AIF".
King George V appointed him Commander in the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG).
The historian of the 16th Battalion wrote of him: 'To Murray belongs the honour of rising from a machine-gun private to the command of a machine-gun battalion of 64 guns, and of receiving more fighting decorations than any other infantry soldier in the British Army in the Great War'. The 13th Battalion historian noted: 'Not only was the 13th proud of him but the whole brigade was, from general to Digger. His unconscious modesty won him still greater admiration…Murray's courage was not a reckless exposure to danger like that of Jacka or Sexton who didn't know fear'. He was a sensitive man who believed in discipline and wrote that it transformed thousands of men'—nervy and highly-strung like myself—enabling them to do the work which without discipline, they would have been quite incapable of performing'. Bean called him 'the most distinguished fighting officer in the A.I.F.' His portrait, by George Bell is in the Australian War Memorial, Canberra.
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