Notes for Walter Everitt MURRAY

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Notes for Walter Everitt MURRAY

According to information received in 1997 from Peter Murray, Walter, the youngest son of Alfred and Mary (Everitt) Murray, was born December 10, 1837, at Salem in the Alburney district, Cape Province, South Africa, and was the first baby baptised in St. John's Church, Bathurst. At age 18 he began farming in the Graaff Reinet district, Cape Colony,and after many moves acquired the farms Hoeksfontein in 1865 and Roode Bloem in 1873, settling on the latter farm in 1875. He raised sheep and also pioneered the introduction of irrigation techniques and ostrich farming in the Graaff Reinet district. He raised and commanded a mounted volunteer corps, the Voor Sneeuberg Rangers, in the Gaika Galeka War in 1878. He took an active interest in the elimination of scab (a disease of sheep) and obtained an appointment as scab inspector for the government. He invented and promoted the circular dip tank still in use today for treatment of scab and became an agent for Cooper's Dip. He was also very active in the Zwart Ruggens Farmers Association. Known as Oupa to his large family, he died May 9, 1924, aged 86 having been an invalid for the last 10 years.

He married on August 1, 1859, Anna Elizabeth Southey (born December 20, 1836, died October 15, 1914), eldest child of George and Eleanor (Rubidge) Southey of Bloemhof farm, Graaff Reinet district.

Walter and Anna Murray had 11 children, and the family they founded were well known in the Cape Colony as the Roode Bloem Murrays to distinguish them from the unrelated but equally numerous family of the Rev'd Andrew Murray in Graaff Reinet.

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