The Times/1911/News/Retirement Of Sir George Murray

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Retirement Of Sir George Murray

We understand that Sir George Murray, Permanent Secretary of the Treasury, is retiring in the course of the current month. Although Sir George has not reached the age of compulsory retirement, he has passed that at which retirement is optional.

The Right Hon. Sir George Herbert Murray, G.C.B., head of the Civil Service, retires at the age of 62 from the important and onerous post of Permanent Secretary of the Treasury. He is the grandson of Dr. Murray, the last Bishop of Sodor and Man appointed by his kinsman, the Duke of Atholl, Lord of Man.

Sir George was in the first instance appointed a Clerk in the Foreign Office, but after a few years' service in that Department he was transferred to a clerkship in Treasury. He was private secretary to Mr. Gladstone, when Prime Minister from 1892 to 1894, and to Lord Rosebery from Mr. Gladstone's retirement in 1894 to the fall of the Rosebery Ministry in 1895. He was Chairman of the Board of Inland Revenue, 1897 to 1899, Secretary of the Post Office, 1899 to 1903, and Permanent Secretary of the Treasury from 1903. He was given the Grand Cross of the Bath in 1908, and was sworn of the Privy Council in 1910.

Sir George had a great knowledge of the traditions of the public service invaluable to the holder of his post, and he has enjoyed in a singular degree the confidence of the chiefs under whom he has served—a merited confidence, as he belonged to the old school of Civil servants which, while rendering to its chiefs hearty assistance, effaced its own personality. Sir George wisely lays down the heavy routine work of office while "it is yet day," but he is young enough to render good service to the State. He goes out now to South Africa as Chairman of the Commission which is about to adjust relations between the various States of the Commonwealth.