Ronald King Murray, Lord Murray
Ronald King Murray, Lord Murray, PC (15 June 1922 – 27 September 2016) was a Scottish Labour politician and judge who became a Senator of the College of Justice in 1979.
He studied at George Watson's College in Edinburgh, the University of Edinburgh, and Jesus College, Oxford. He served in the British Army with REME and SEAC from 1941 to 1946. He began his legal career as an advocate in 1953, served as an Advocate Depute from 1964 to 1970 (Senior Advocate Depute from 1967), and was made a Queen's Counsel in 1967.
Politically, he stood unsuccessfully for Caithness and Sutherland in 1959, Edinburgh North in a 1960 by-election, and Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles in 1964 and 1965. He was elected MP for Edinburgh Leith in 1970 and served until 1979. He was Lord Advocate from March 1974 to May 1979 and was made a Privy Councillor in 1974.
In 1979 he was appointed to the Court of Session and High Court of Justiciary as a Senator of the College of Justice, with the judicial title Lord Murray. His uncle David King Murray had been a Senator from 1945 to 1955.
In 1977, some Young Liberals urged impeachment over a murder case, but the motion did not proceed. Murray said the House of Commons could still initiate impeachment if needed. He supported the World Court Project U.K., which sought a ruling on the legality of using nuclear weapons. In 1996 the International Court of Justice ruled that using or threatening to use nuclear weapons would generally be illegal.
He died on 27 September 2016 at age 94.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 13:09 (CET).