Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria. To coincide with the OMRS Convention

The M.B.E. group of four awarded to Mr S. S. Murray, Commissioner for Nyasaland

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, M.B.E. (Civil) Member’s 1st type breast badge; Africa General Service 1902-561 clasp, Nyasaland 1915 (S. S. Murray, Nyasaland Vol. Res.); Coronation 1937; Coronation 1953, very fine (4) £350-400

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Awards to Civilians from the Collection of John Tamplin.

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Stephen Samuel Murray was born in Greenwich on 1 August 1887, the son of a Dairyman. He was educated at Dulwich College 1902-06, and entered the Colonial Civil Service in January 1912, being appointed a Clerk in the Nyasaland Protectorate. He served in this territory for the next twenty years, and was Acting Chief Transport Officer in January and February 1913, and again from May 1918 to April 1919.

As a member of the Nyasaland Volunteer Reserve, he served during the suppression of the rising led by the Revd. John Chilembwe during January and February 1915, and received the medal with clasp. Murray was Acting Paymaster to the King’s African Rifles during June 1913 to April 1914, and again from January to March 1915. He was also Cashier in the Treasury from April to July 1914.

After the War, Murray was Acting Lands Officer and Director of Mines, May to December 1919, and then Acting Chief Clerk in the Secretariat from April 1920. In November 1920 he was appointed Acting 2nd Assistant until March 1921, and again from June to December 1921. Murray rose to become Senior Assistant Secretary of the Secretariat, Nyasaland Protectorate, and in that position was appointed a M.B.E. (Civil Division) in the London Gazette of 1 March 1929. He retired in 1932.

He had published in 1922, by the Crown Agents for the Government of Nyasaland, A Handbook of Nyasaland, a second edition of which was published in 1932. Returning to England, Murray was appointed in March 1935, the Nyasaland Commissioner in London, and served as Commissioner for Nyasaland until 1955, when that office was closed following the formation of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Sold with further research including copied extracts from both editions of his Handbook of Nyasaland.