MUNSTER, William Felix Laurence (son of Henry Munster, M.P.) b. Mortier near Tours, France 1849; ed. Stonyhurst coll. and at univ. coll. London 1868, B.A. 1871; M.P. Mallow 1872–4; resided Silwood lodge, Brighton. d. St. Louis, Missouri 11 April 1877.
MUNTZ, George Frederick (eld. son of Philip Frederick Muntz, merchant, d. 1811). b. Great Charles st. Birmingham 26 Nov. 1794; managed his father’s metal works in Water st. 1811; made a large fortune by manufacture of what is known as Muntz metal, patented by him 1832; a partner with Pascoe, Grenfell and Sons, copper smelters, London and Swansea 1837; founded with Thomas Attwood and Joshua Scholefield the Political Union for the protection of public rights 1829; chairman of a meeting of 15,000 persons in Birmingham to consider the general distress Jany. 1830; M.P. Birmingham 24 May 1840 to death, was the first M.P. who wore a beard; author of Letters upon corn and currency 1841; The true cause of the change in the commercial affairs of the country, 2 ed. 1843. d. Umberslade hall, near Birmingham 30 July 1857. J. Grant’s Portraits of public characters (1841) 86–101; R. B. Prosser’s Birmingham Inventors (1881) 93, 170, 206, 225; Dent’s Birmingham 398, 476, 493, 530, 533, (1880) portrait; I.L.N. i 92 (1842) portrait, xiv 196 (1849) portrait; E. Edwards’s Personal recollections of Birmingham (1877) 79–88.
MUNTZ, Philip Henry (brother of preceding). b. Selby hall, Worcs. 21 Jany. 1811; ed. Shrewsbury school; merchant Birmingham; chief promoter of incorporation of the borough 1837, a town councillor 26 Dec. 1838, senior alderman 27 Dec. 1838, mayor 1839 and 1840, resigned aldermanship 10 Nov. 1856; presented with the freedom of the borough 31 Oct. 1888; M.P. Birmingham 1868–85; resided Edstone hall, Henley-in-Arden. d. Leamington 25 Dec. 1888. bur. Leamington 28 Dec. Biograph iii 47–52 (1880); Times 26 Dec. 1888, p. 4, 29 Dec. p. 7; Dent’s Birmingham 494, 546 (1880); I.L.N. 12 Jany. 1889 p. 36 portrait.
MURCHISON, Charles (younger son of Alexander Murchison, M.D.) b. Spring Field Vue, Jamaica 26 July 1830; taken to Elgin 1833; ed. at univs. of Aberdeen and Edinb.; M.R.C.S. Edinb. 1850; M.D. Edinb. 1851; assistant surgeon Bengal army 4 April 1853, retired Oct. 1855; professor of chemistry at Medical college, Calcutta 1853–5; physician in London 1855 to death; physician to Westminster general dispensary 1855; lecturer on botany at St. Mary’s hospital 1856; assistant physician to King’s college hospital 1856–60, to Middlesex hospital 1860, physician 1866–71; assistant physician to London fever hospital 1856, physician 1861–70; physician and lecturer on medicine at St. Thomas’s hospital 1871 to death; M.R.C.P. 1855, F.R.C.P. 1859; Croonian lecturer 1873; F.R.S. 7 June 1866; hon. LL.D. Edinb. 1870; examiner in medicine to univ. of London 1875; member of Pathological soc. 1855, secretary 1865–8, treasurer 1869–76, and president 1877 to death, contributed 143 papers to the Transactions; author of A treatise on the continued fevers of Great Britain 1862, 3 ed. 1884; Clinical lectures on diseases of the liver, jaundice, and abdominal dropsy 1868, 3 ed. 1885; On functional derangements of the liver 1874, 2 ed. 1879. d. suddenly in his consulting room at 79 Wimpole st. London 23 April 1879. bur. Norwood cemet., marble portrait bust in St. Thomas’s hospital. Proc. of Royal Society xxix 23–5 (1879).
MURCHISON, Kenneth (son of Kenneth Murchison of Tarradale, Eastern Ross 1751–96). b. 1793; ensign 78 foot 23 July 1807; lieut. 21 June 1810 to 20 Jany. 1814; lieut. 9th royal veteran battalion 20 Jany. 1814; lieut. 3rd royal veteran battalion 1815, retired on full pay 24 May 1816; governor of Penang and Singapore. d. Oxford terrace, Hyde park, London 1 Aug. 1854.
MURCHISON, Sir Roderick Impey, 1 Bart. (brother of Kenneth Murchison 1793–1854). b. Tarradale, Eastern Ross 19 Feb. 1792; ed. at Durham gr. sch. and at military college, Great Marlow 1805; ensign 36 foot 22 April 1807, captain 13 Aug. 1812 to 1814; served at Vimieira 1808; in sir John Moore’s Spanish campaign and retreat to Corunna 1808; aide de camp to general Mackenzie in Sicily 1809–11, and in Ireland 1811–14; captain 6 dragoons 13 April 1815, sold out 14 Sept. 1815; attended lectures at royal institution 1824; F.G.S. 7 Jany. 1825, secretary 1826–31, president 1831; F.R.S. 6 April 1826, Copley medallist 1849; president of Geographical Society 1843–58; granted Russian orders of St. Anne and of Stanislaus 1845; knighted at St. James’s palace 11 Feb. 1846; president of British Association at York 1846; director general of the geological survey 1855 to death; K.C.B. 3 Feb. 1863; created a baronet 10 Jany. 1866; D.C.L. Oxford 1852; LL.D. Cambridge 1861; lived at 16 Belgrave square, London 1839 to death; grand officer of the order of the Crown of Italy Aug. 1869; founded chair of geology at Edinburgh 10 March 1871; author of The Silurian system 1839; Siluria, the history of the oldest known rocks containing organic remains 1854, 4 ed. 1867; author with A. Von Keyserling and E. De Verneuil of The Geology of Russia and the Ural Mountains 1845; m. 29 Aug. 1815 Charlotte only dau. of general Francis Hugonin colonel of 4 dragoons 1808–36, she d. 16 Belgrave sq. London 9 Feb. 1869 aged 80. d. 16 Belgrave sq. London 22 Oct. 1871. bur. Brompton cemet. 27 Oct., personalty sworn under £250,000, 25 Nov. 1871. A. Geikie’s Life of Sir R. I. Murchison, 2 vols. (1875) portrait; Dunkin’s Obituary notices of astronomers (1879) 206–13; Quarterly journal of Geol. Soc. xxviii 29–35 (1872); Walford’s Representative Men (1868) portrait No. 13; I.L.N. xlviii 237 (1866) portrait; Graphic iv 411, 429 (1871) portrait; Illust. Times 13 Jany. 1866 p. 17 portrait; Victoria Mag. xii 461–3 (1809) an account of Lady Murchison; Reg. and mag. of biog. i 297–8 (1869).
MURDOCH, George. b. 1815; assistant engineer in navy Jany. 1838; chief engineer 1 July 1847; inspector of machinery 22 Sept. 1856, chief inspector of machinery 6 July 1866, retired 14 June 1870; served in Black Sea during Russian war, for which he was created knight of legion of honour; introduced, the now abandoned, smoke observations at the official trials of men-of-war; claimed to be first inventor of breech-loading system of ordnance, submitted a model of his gun and breechpiece to the Admiralty 1866. d. Hilsea near Portsmouth 24 Dec. 1888.
MURDOCH, John. b. 1767; a baker; the public hangman in Scotland; the last execution at which he officiated was in Oct. 1851. d. 15 March 1856. Times 28 March 1856 p. 10.
MURDOCH, John. b. Enzie, Banffshire 11 Nov. 1796; studied in Spain; ordained priest 19 March 1821; coadjutor bishop of western district of Scotland, 4 June 1833 with title of bishop of Castabala, consecrated in St. Andrew’s, Glasgow by bishop Kyle 20 Oct. 1833; bishop of the western district 4 Dec. 1846 to death. d. Glasgow 15 Dec. 1865.
MURDOCH, Sir Thomas William Clinton (son of Thomas Murdoch, F.R.S.) b. Portland place, London 22 March 1809; ed. at Charterhouse; junior clerk in colonial office 1826, senior clerk May 1846; chief secretary for Canada Sept. 1839 to Sept. 1842; chairman of Colonial land and emigration comrs. Nov. 1847, retired on a pension of £1,200 on abolition of the office 1 Jany. 1877; employed on a special mission to Canada and U.S. of America 1870; K.C.M.G. 15 Jany. 1870. d. 88 St. George’s sq. London 30 Nov. 1891.