Murray went to Danforth Tech for Grade 9. The next year, 1932, he transferred to Malvern. He enjoyed playing baseball, skiing, swimming and bowling. He graduated in 1938 and got his Shorthand diploma in 1940 from Shaw's Business School. He tried to enlist in the RCAF in March 1940 as a clerk but instead he found work at McColl-Frontenac Oil Company on Cherry Street as a switchboard operator/stenographer.

 

In May 1941, he was drafted into the army's four month training plan where he did basic training in Newmarket and then in Kingston with the reserves. In July Murray took the physical for the RCAF, aiming to transfer out of the army. The acceptance to the RCAF usually took several months so in the meantime, Murray was posted to Toronto to be an army clerk. When the war was over, he hoped to become a salesman or an accountant like his father.

 

The RCAF enlistment was formalized in January 1942. The next month he was sent to Jarvis, Ontario to the Bombing and Gunnery School. He returned to Toronto in April for more training. His marks were excellent but he wasn't considered pilot material and he continued with bombing training at Trenton in June. He must have been discouraged because he “expressed a desire to obtain his discharge so that he (might) return to” the Corps of Military Staff Clerks in the army.

 

In July he was sent to bombing and gunnery school in Paulson, Manitoba for two months. He spent 45 hours in the air including five at night as a bomb aimer. Murray continued training in September in Winnipeg at air observer school where map reading and general reconnaissance were taught. He continued to score excellent marks, but his instructors felt that although he was “industrious and sincere,” he was poor in character and leadership.

 

Murray was awarded his Air Bomber badge on November 6. He had a 13 day leave before embarking to Europe and no doubt returned to visit his family in Toronto. He arrived in Halifax on November 21 and was transferred to the RAF Trainee Pool. RCAF aircrew served as Canadians in the RAF, filling needed positions.

 

He disembarked in Britain on December 18 and was assigned to the Personnel Reception Centre in Bournemouth where it was determined the appropriate aircraft for each airman. Murray would be assigned to a bomber and on February 2, 1943 he reported at No. 26 Operational Training Unit (OTU) near Wing, England which was 80 kilometres north of London. The unit trained night bomber crews on Wellington bombers. When airmen arrived at an OTU, they assembled in a large hall and would get to know each other. Some men who knew each other through previous training would decide to fly together and they would meet men from other trades to assemble a crew. The course took five or six weeks and the crew would practise night flying, navigation, bombing, cross country flying and all weather flying, getting them used to working together and with their type of aircraft.

 

Two weeks later Murray and his crew were sent to a conversion unit at East Wretham, Norfolk, 160 miles northeast of London. The airfield was home to RAF Squadron 115, which was beginning to convert from Wellingtons to Lancaster heavy bombers. Lancasters were built to carry 4000 pound bombs at the time. Later models could carry 12000 pound bombs. Murray continued the OTU course on the Lancaster and by May 29 his crew formally joined the squadron.

 

Murray's pilot was Australian Raymond Peate. He was born in 1923 in Adelaide. The navigator was 27 year old Noel Shaw from Oldham, Lancashire, England. The upper gunner was another Canadian, Sydney Anderson, a 23 year old from Redville, Saskatchewan. George Sharratt was the rear gunner from Staffordshire, England and the flight engineer was 19 year old Hugh Barrister from Romford, Essex, England. The crew's wireless operator tended to change every few flights and occasionally a second pilot joined for a flight. A Lancaster bomber usually had a crew of seven.

 

June 5, 1943 was the first mission for the crew. They were the only Lancaster sent out from the squadron to lay mines near the West Frisians, islands off the coast of the Netherlands. It would have been a way to ease the crew into being operational. They took off at night and dropped their three mines from 250 metres, returning to base safely.

 

As the crew's air bomber, Murray was in the front of the aircraft below the cockpit. He lay on his stomach and, looking through the bombsight, he helped to guide the Lancaster to the target and release the bombs.