Birthplace:
- Edinburgh, Scotland

Birthdate:
- 6 June 1837

Nationality:
- Scottish

Height:
- 5 feet 9 3/4 inches

Family Background:
- Not known

At Sandhurst:
- No

Foreign Languages:
- French

Career before Halifax:
- Ensign, 60th Foot, 7 February 1858 (purchase)
- to 78th Highlanders by transfer, 19 February 1858
- Lieutenant, 16 August 1861 (purchase)
- Captain, 2 October 1866 (non purchase)

Medals & Awards:
- None

Postings while in NS Command:
- Halifax, 9 May to 25 November 1871

Married:
- No

Career after Halifax:
- Brevet Major, 16 January 1880
- Major, 1 July 1881
- Lieutenant Colonel, 27 March 1883
- Colonel, 27 March 1887
- to half pay, 27 March 1889
- Colonel (72nd Regimental District), 29 December 1890
- retired on retired pay, 6 June 1894

Died:
- 4 April 1915

Murray's parents evidently had died while he was still young, as one of the letters supporting his bid for a first commission in 1858 came from a man who identified himself as a guardian. Another letter of support came from the Duke of Buccleuch, which shows that Murray had some high connections. Murray's finances seem to have been somewhat constricted, though whether this was a temporary phenomenon due to his youth is not known. Indeed, the point of Buccleuch's letter was to point out that although Murray was "much gratified" at his initial appointment to the 60th Royal Rifles (a notoriously 'swank' regiment) "at the same time his means being limited he would wish to be transferred to a regiment which is likely to be less expensive as regards his private expenses. He has a desire to be appointed to the 78th Regiment".  Murray himself wrote that the "amount of my commission is a matter of great consideration to me (my means being very limited)." Besides finances he gave as reasons for wanting to move from the 60th to the 78th the fact that the latter was a "Scotch Regiment", that at the time it was in India (where an officer could live much more cheaply), and because an uncle had previously served with it.

Murray's career with the 78th after he left Halifax was very much that of the professional Victorian officer. He served with the 78th in the Afghan war of 1880, and he commanded a detachment from it (by then designated the 2nd Battalion Seaforth Highlanders), which served with the 1st Battalion in the Egyptian War of 1882.  He became lieutenant colonel of the 1st Seaforth in March 1883, and colonel in 1887, and commanded it in the Hazara campaign on the Indian northwest frontier in 1888. He was twice mentioned in dispatches, and received the D.S.O. He retired from the army in 1889, and died on 4 April 1915.