Photographs of
Admiral Leonard Murray Memorial
1896 – 1971
Officially unveiled 14 October 2004
Pictou Pictou County Nova Scotia
Located beside the traffic circle at the entrance to Pictou
GPS location: 45°40’49″N 62°43’38″W
Also see: Admiral Murray memorial at Pictou Landing
The above photographs were taken on 4 October 2005.
50¢ stamp commemorating the 60th anniversary of the end of the Battle of the Atlantic,
officially unveiled 1 May 2005 at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, Halifax.
2 500 000 of these stamps were printed.
The Battle of the Atlantic
The Battle of the Atlantic which lasted 2,075 days, was the longest campaign of the Second World War. It pitted Allied navies against German and Italian naval forces, especially submarines, in a battle to safeguard the essential flow of shipping between North America and Europe.
On any given day 125 merchant vessels were sailing in convoy across the North Atlantic. It was during these treacherous, stormy crossings that Canada’s navy matured and won the mantle of a professional service. Our navy escorted 25,343 merchant vessels across the Atlantic. These ships carried 181,643,180 tons of cargo to Europe – the equivalent of eleven lines of railway freight cars, each stretching from Vancouver to Halifax. Without these supplies, the war effort would have collapsed.
Although it was largely unprepared for war in 1939, Canada’s navy grew at an unparalleled rate, eventually providing 47 percent of all convoy escorts. Rear Admiral Leonard Murray, Commander-in-Chief North-West Atlantic, who directed convoy battles from Halifax would become the only Canadian to hold an Allied theatre command during the war…
— From the Battle of Atlantic Memorial Service pamphlet
Online source:
The Battle of the Atlantic
http://www.thewrens.com/boatantic_hist.html
In order to encourage the captains of the merchant ships of
all countries which carried the lifeblood of the United Kingdom,
I made it a point to attend the briefing conference of all captains
and chief engineers before their departure. During the winter of
’42-’43, when sinkings were at their worst, I could see when
I told them of the measures by escort and air cover that were
being taken for their protection and safety; I could see that
they knew very well and that they knew I knew in spite of
my brave words, that anything up to 25 per cent of them would
probably not arrive in the U.K. in their own ships, and that
probably half of that number would not arrive in the U.K. at all.
But there was never a waver in their resolve.
— Admiral Leonard Murray, RCN
Online source:
The Merchant Navy of Canada
http://www.junobeach.org/e/4/can-tac-mer-e.htm
Admiral L.W. Murray
http://www.junobeach.org/e/3/can-pep-can-murray-e.htm
Photograph of Admiral Murray with Winston Churchill
http://www.parl.ns.ca/cenotaph/winstonchurchhill.jpg
Admiral Leonard Warren Murray: A War, Peace & Security Bibliography
Canadian Forces College
http://wps.cfc.forces.gc.ca/en/bibliographies/bib/view.php?bibId=186
The Royal Canadian Navy and the Battle of the Atlantic, 1939-1945
by the Canadian War Museum
http://www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/disp/dis007_e.html
The Battle of the Atlantic
Canadian Newspapers in the Second World War
by the Canadian War Museum
http://www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/newspapers/operations/atlantic_e.html
Canadian WWII Merchant Ship Losses by the Naval Museum of Manitoba
http://www.naval-museum.mb.ca/merch/mership.htm
Rear-Admiral L.W. Murray Monument by the Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library
http://www.parl.ns.ca/cenotaph/pictoulanding.htm
Rear-Admiral L.W. Murray Monument (2) by the Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library
http://www.parl.ns.ca/cenotaph/pictoulanding2.htm
Books
Seven Sailors by Commander Kenneth Edwards
Biographies of seven great Royal Navy commanders:
Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay,
Captain William Agnew,
Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser,
Rear Admiral Leonard Murray,
Captain Robert St Vincent Sherbrooke,
Vice Admiral Sir Edward Neville Syfret, and
Rear Admiral Thomase Hope Troubridge.
255 pages, published 1945 in London, England
U-boats Against Canada: German Submarines in Canadian Waters
by Michael Hadley, 362 pages
published 1990 by McGill-Queen’s University Press
