I Confess

I CONFESS: A Memoir of the Siege of Tobruk

Major General John Joseph Murray

Big Sky Publishing, 2011, 247pp

Major General Murray drafted this memoir in 1945, while he was General Officer Commanding Northern Territory Force. He had intended to publish it himself, but his early death at the age of 59 (in 1951) denied him this opportunity. His family have now arranged for it to be published before the passage of time and the deaths of Murray’s siblings and children lead to his papers being scattered among grand-children and great grand-children, and lost to wider community access.

The memoir does not focus on the battles in which Murray took part, rather it gives an account of his personal life as commander of the 20th Brigade of the 9th Division before and during the Siege of Tobruk, with the battles as a backdrop. Many anecdotes show Murray’s companions in a humorous light. His writing style is easy to read, with some memorable phrases, such as a reference to the Army’s troubles with ‘women who become professional camp followers for pecuniary gain’. Delicately phrased, but very informative!

His first batman (one Jack Murray, not related) seems to have been the kind of ‘character’ that might best be played by a younger Paul Hogan, who helped himself to the brigadier’s alcohol stocks, in one case leaving a promissory note for a bottle of gin ‘borrowed’ when Jack was despatched back to his unit after getting drunk (on another bottle of the Brigadier’s gin) when he should have been digging a shelter in the desert. Not long after, Jack reappeared at brigade headquarters (minus the ‘borrowed’ gin, but still promising to replace both bottles), as the brigade major’s batman.

While signallers were often considered to be good sources of the ‘Dinkum oil’ on future events, when Murray had his hair cut, the 20th Brigade headquarters barber was primed to ask whether he wanted a full cut, or just a trim. The former was considered to be a sign that relief was not imminent. As the actual time for relief came near, the barber asked the question, but provided a trim without waiting for an answer – perhaps the signallers had restored their position as the leading distributors of ‘Furphies’!

While much of this memoir is fairly light-hearted, Murray is always conscious of the harsh background of war; he pays frequent tribute to the front-line soldiers, who faced the greatest dangers, and whose living conditions in Tobruk were considerably less comfortable than even the Spartan conditions experienced by Murray.

Murray’s grandson, Andrew Murray, who prepared the draft for publication, has added an interesting selection of photographs, some well-known, but many that will be new to readers. He has also added several original documents, and some notes of speeches on leadership and the duties of staff officers that Murray gave while commanding the 4th Division and Northern Territory Force respectively. Even after almost 70 years, the speeches remain cogent.

One matter shows what a tight community Australia was in that era – Murray’s driver in Tobruk was the son of A.B. (Banjo) Paterson; two of his poems are reproduced in the book, and have a style recognisably inherited from Banjo. The record of military service by members of Murray’s family in two world wars is also a reminder of the impact of those wars on Australia, when the population was much lower than it is now.

Big Sky Publishing has turned Murray’s memoir into a handsome book, well worth reading.

JOHN DONOVAN