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They made the Ultimate Sacrifice
MURRAY, Wallace Haig, Stoker 1c, 21569, RCN, MPK - 22 Oct 1940, HMCS MARGAREE - Son of James de Pas Murray and Youla M. Murray, of Cloverdale, British Columbia.
Stoker Murray died when his ship, HMCS MARGAREE, was struck by the freighter SS Port Fairy while in convoy and was sunk. 143 of her crew were lost, 86 of them were survivors of HMCS FRASER.
Stoker First Class Wallace Haig Murray, 2324 Heywood, West Vancouver, survived the Fraser disaster to lose his life in the Margaree. Since the Fraser was lost, he had been waiting in London to join the new ship. In recent letters, he told of sleeping on the London docks, working 48 hours on and 48 off, according to his father Jarus de Pas Murray. He had been looking forward to coming home for Christmas. Wallace Murray was 22. He was born in Winnipeg and was educated in West Vancouver and Kitsilano High School. He was a diesel engineer at Goldfield, and enlisted in the navy two years ago.
Survivor of HMCS Fraser describes escape from Ship. One of the first eye-witness accounts of the dramatic sinking of the "HMCS Fraser" in the coastal waters of Bordeaux, France, has reached this city.
The story of how men trapped in the interior of the Canadian destroyer made their way to safety through a hole blasted in the ship's side is described in a letter from a member of the crew, Wallace H. Murray, to his mother, Mrs. James Murray of 2234 Haywood Avenue, West Vancouver. "It all happened so suddenly it seems like a bad dream," the letter states. "I was asleep in my hammock when the disaster came". Murray, who is a first-class stoker, discovered that six of his messmates were killed in their efforts to gain safety. He forced his way through the gaping hole in the ship's side and found himself tossing in the rough Atlantic waters. Men all about him were struggling in the sea which was covered with a thick layer of oil. It clung to clothes and face alike, making it doubly difficult to breathe and to keep afloat. Rescue boats came with the approach of lifeboats from another Canadian ship which accompanied the "Fraser". "I lost everything I owned," Murray's letter continued". Only my watch escaped, because it was on shore, being fixed at a jeweler's we are in England, but we don't know what they are going to do with us yet." Mrs. Murray first learned that her son had escaped the fate that overtook scores of his shipmates when she was listening to a broadcast from London on July 01. "The first I knew was when I heard a familiar voice coming all the way from London," Mrs. Murray recounted. "It was a great thrill to hear him say 'Hello, mother." Murray is 22 and joined the crew of the "Fraser" at Esquimalt two years ago.
Comment from Tom Taylor's book "Glimpses", The paper then went on to list the 140 officers and men. Among them: Stoker First Class Wallace Haig Murray, R.C.N., 21569, son of James de Pas Murray, 2324 Haywood Avenue, West Vancouver. One of the men who did escape from the Margaree was Sub-Lieutenant Bob Timbrell. He reported that the fore part of the ship had been cut in half by a freighter in mid-Atlantic and sank in forty seconds. Destroyer HMCS Fraser sank after colliding with HMS Calcutta in the estuary of the Gironde River during the evacuation of Bordeaux. Fifty-nine crewmen were lost.
Ships served in: HMCS NADEN - Enlisted 19 Oct 1938 as a Stoker 2nd Class, RCN HMCS FRASER - Drafted to FRASER 17 Jan 1939 * Rated Stoker 1st Class, RCN 19 Aug 1939 * Survived the sinking of HMCS FRASER on 25 Jun 1940 HMCS MARGAREE - Drafted to MARGAREE 06 Sep 1940 * Commissioning crew
Service file for Wallace Murray Source: The Library and Archives of Canada
Second World War Casualty Index
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