Leonard W . Murray Rear Admiral Leonard Warren Murray , CB , CBE ( 22 June 1896 – 25 November 1971 ) was an officer of the Royal Canadian Navy who played a significant role in the Battle of the Atlantic . He commanded the Newfoundland Escort Force from 1941 – 1943 , and from 1943 to the end of the war was Commander - in - Chief , Canadian Northwest Atlantic . He was the only Canadian to command an Allied theatre of operations during World War I or World War II . Early years to the end of World War I . Leonard Warren Murray was born at Granton , Nova Scotia on 22 June 1896 . His father Simon Dickson Murray ( 1859 – 1936 ) was a direct descendant of the Scottish immigrants who travelled to Pictou County on the Hector in 1773 , and his mother was Jane Falconer ( 1868 – 1968 ) . Simon was mid - level manager in various enterprises in Pictou Landing , and Leonard grew up close to the water . At 14 years of age , Murray left Pictou Academy to join the first intake of 21 recruits into the Royal Naval College of Canada in Halifax , which had just been created by the Naval Service Act of 4 May 1910 . " The first winter at the naval college was absolute hell , we had no uniforms , we arrived in what we stood up in and had to send home for further clothing . A case of measles broke out very shortly and we were quarantined , and the only time we got out of the college was when we went to the skating rink to play hockey ; and that was a great relief . " - Admiral Murray . Immediately after graduating in January 1913 , he served as a Midshipman on the Royal Navy vessel on duty protecting British interests in the Mexican Revolution , and then aboard . At the outbreak of World War I he was assigned to the protected cruiser HMCS " Niobe " , the largest ship in the Canadian navy during World War I . Four of his classmates were sent to the Royal Navy cruiser and were killed off the coast of South America on 1 November 1914 at the Battle of Coronel – thereby becoming the first Canadian - service casualties of World War I . Murray served briefly as Flotilla Gunnery Officer on HMCS " Margaret " and then in February 1916 was promoted to Sub - Lieutenant while aboard . He spent the last two years of World War I as Assistant Navigating Officer on from January 1917 as Lieutenant , where he set up troop convoys across the Atlantic to outwit German U - boat s – invaluable experience for the Battle of the Atlantic more than 20 years later . Murray ended the war in the North Sea aboard , and witnessed the surrender of the German fleet at Scapa Flow . Between the wars . After World War I , Murray served briefly on , and then on the newly commissioned HMS " Calcutta " under the distinguished British Captain Percy Noble , from whom Murray learned the basic skills of command , and who eighteen years later served opposite Murray on the receiving end of the convoys as Commander - in - Chief , Western Approaches Command . Following a short tour aboard HMS " Crescent " , Murray was assigned to as Navigation Officer , until " Aurora " was paid off in 1921 due to naval budget cuts . Leonard married Jean Chaplin Scott in Westmount , Quebec on 10 October 1921 , and with the Royal Canadian Navy depleted of ships on which he could serve , at this point he considered a civilian career , in 1924 qualifying as master of a foreign - going vessel . Deciding to remain with the armed forces , Murray joined many of his colleagues and spent the inter - war years alternating between shore assignments as a training officer with the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve , and serving aboard Royal Navy vessels , which in Murray ' s case included ( during a tour in 1923 in Turkey where he befriended Lord Louis Mountbatten ) , and . Understandably , this provided Murray and his peers , including Percy W . Nelles , with a distinct anglophile and , in matters military , Royal Navy bias . In January 1925 , Murray was promoted to Lieutenant - Commander and spent two years at the Canadian Navy ' s main training base at HMCS " Stadacona " . In 1927 , Murray returned to the UK where he did a tour aboard and then spent 1928 studying at the Royal Naval Staff College at Greenwich . During a simulation exercise at the College , Murray broke new ground by planning large convoys - convoys that were regarded at the time as " almost suicidal " , but which had become normal by the time of the Battle of the Atlantic . Upon return to Canada in January 1929 , Murray was promoted to Commander and became the senior naval officer at CFB Esquimalt . In notes for a lecture to RMC Kingston in 1932 , his continuing interest in the offensive merit of convoys over patrols is evident : " The institution of a system of convoy requires a reorientation of the protective forces . Instead of patrolling the focal areas [ where vessels congregate near ports or narrow passages ] , the group of ships forming the convoy is escorted by an armed escort capable of dealing with any possible scale of attack . This may mean that an increase in the protective force is necessary , but . . . the protective force is more definite and concrete than in the patrolling method . In the convoy method . . . it is not possible for an enemy to attack without laying herself open to attack and possible destruction " - Admiral Murray . From June 1932 , Murray was assigned for a year as Naval Staff Officer to National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa , before setting back to sea for two years , leading the small fleet of East Coast destroyers from the bridge of his first operational command , HMCS " Saguenay " . At this point , in mid - 1934 , Murray was appointed to a new position of Senior Naval Officer , Halifax , a position that combined the Commander of the East Coast with the Command of the Naval Dockyard in Halifax . In June 1936 Murray was sent back to the UK to work in the Admiralty Operations Division , and in December 1936 he started his final tour with the Royal Navy serving as Executive Officer aboard the former battleship , where he participated in the 1937 Coronation Fleet Review . In August 1938 , in the middle of a final year at the Imperial Defence College , Murray was promoted to Captain , and so it was that , on the eve of World War II when the Royal Navy was mobilized , Murray returned to Ottawa as a Captain , and Director Naval Operations and Training . World War II and the Battle of the Atlantic . At the outbreak of World War II , he was appointed Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff . From this HQs position Murray played a key role in the build - up of the Navy to its eventual wartime strength of approximately 332 vessels , including crossing Canada to recruit retired Royal Navy officers back into the Canadian Navy , and advocating for the " small - ship anti - submarine " investment strategy that was eventually so successful . In March 1940 he made a secret visit to the UK to negotiate the construction of destroyers in the UK for the Canadian Navy , and subsequently was a founding member of the Permanent Joint Board on Defence . It was while he was working for the PJBD that he renewed his friendship with Commander James " Chummy " Prentice , who was shortly thereafter assigned the position of Senior Officer , Canadian Corvettes under Murray . Both men would work closely together until the spring of 1944 . In October 1940 , he went back to sea briefly as Captain of HMCS " Assiniboine " and Commodore Commanding Halifax Force , effectively in command of the five Canadian warships that were dispatched to the UK in January 1941 to serve convoy duty . Back ashore in the UK , Murray was given the unusual title of Commodore Commanding Canadian Ships , and liaised closely with the Admiralty in the planning of an Atlantic strategy , including the resolution of jurisdictional matters relating to the Dominion of Newfoundland . On return to Canada he was promoted to full Commodore on 31 May 1941 , and on 13 June 1941 he was put in charge of the Newfoundland Escort Force ( NEF ) based out of St John ' s . This was the most important operational mandate given to a Canadian navy officer until that point , in full command of 6 Canadian destroyers , 7 British destroyers , and 21 corvettes , and with responsibility for convoy escort from New York out as far as the transfer point to UK escorts south of Iceland . In recognition of this increased role , Murray was subsequently appointed Rear Admiral on 2 December 1941 . " Conditions were terrible that winter . Groups worked on a 35 day cycle which entailed 29 days away from St John ’ s , 27 days away from fresh bread , 25 days away from fresh meat , added to which at the northern end of their beat there was no sunlight to speak of in the winter . We had to revert to the old rations of Nelson ’ s time , barreled salt beef with lime juice or tomato juice to scare away scurvy " - Admiral Murray . The NEF was reorganized in February 1942 as the Mid - Ocean Escort Force ( MOEF ) . On 9 September 1942 , Murray was appointed to Commanding Officer Atlantic Coast , with his Headquarters in Halifax , and effective command over 322 armed ships . As a direct result of the Atlantic Convoy Conference of 1 – 12 March 1943 , where it was agreed that the US Navy would concentrate on the South Atlantic leaving Canada and the UK to cover the North Atlantic , on 1 April 1943 Murray was made Commander - in - Chief Canadian Northwest Atlantic . Still headquartered in Halifax , thereafter he commanded all Allied air and naval forces involved in convoy protection between Canada and the coast of Ireland until the end of the war with Germany in 1945 . A personal highlight of this period occurred on 14 September 1943 , when Murray gave an impromptu guided tour of Halifax to the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill . Churchill and his family , together with the First Sea Lord , boarded in Halifax harbour for their return voyage to the United Kingdom following consultations with US President Roosevelt . Murray was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1943 King ' s Birthday Honours , and Companion of the Order of the Bath the following year . As the Allies gained the upper hand in the Battle of the Atlantic throughout 1943 and 1944 , attacks on convoys diminished and the amount of escort cover was reduced , but the hard work of planning and organizing convoys never ceased . By May 1944 , British participation in convoy escorts was withdrawn entirely , and Canada was left with sole responsibility until September 1944 . Murray ' s moment of singular pride came in this period , when the largest convoy of World War II , HX 300 sailed for the UK via New York on 17 July 1944 , with 167 merchant ships ( ) . It arrived in the UK , without incident , on 3 August 1944 . VE Day and early retirement . Admiral Murray was controversially blamed for allowing sailors shore leave in Halifax on VE Day , a decision that is generally considered to have contributed to the Halifax Riot of 7 – 8 May 1945 . James Lorimer Ilsley , the Acting Prime Minister of Canada , responded quickly to the situation and on 10 May appointed Justice Kellock to chair a Royal Commission into the disorders . On 12 May , Murray was abruptly removed from his command ; and the next day a separate Naval Board of Inquiry under Admiral Brodeur was appointed to investigate naval participation in the disorders . The Kellock Commission placed considerable blame upon the Navy and in particular upon the Admiral , for not having exercised better control over the sailors ' celebrations ashore . The Naval Inquiry ' s findings were more balanced , finding that the riot was caused by several factors , including a failure in the naval command . Murray himself felt that responsibility lay mainly with the civil authorities of Halifax , and he was frustrated that the Kellock Commission effectively placed the Navy on trial without providing him or his officers with an opportunity to defend themselves . He asked for a court martial to clear his name , but this was never agreed . The Government made an attempt to leave the Admiral with his honour intact : But the Admiral was never assigned another command . Concluding that he was being held up as a scapegoat , and feeling bitter that the country and the Navy had abandoned him suddenly at the moment of the Navy ' s greatest accomplishment , Murray left Canada for the United Kingdom in September 1945 , and officially retired from the Navy on 14 March 1946 . Later years . Murray remained active in his retirement , qualifying as a lawyer on 17 November 1949 , and with his specialty in maritime law he represented the British government at the 1950 enquiry into the accidental sinking of the . He was involved with his local church , and served as a rural councillor as well as on school boards . His love of the sea was kept alive by keen membership in the Bar Yacht Club where he was racing Captain for ten years , and a leadership role with the Sea Scouts — coincidentally carried back to Canada where a Canadian Sea Cadet Corps in New Glasgow , near his home town , is named in his honour ( RCSCC 87 Admiral Murray ) . Murray stopped practising law in 1960 to care better for his ailing wife , who died in 1962 . Following a chance meeting on a Greek cruise , Leonard remarried on 23 August 1963 , in Buxton to an ophthalmic surgeon Antonina Schcheyteenin — who quickly came to be known as Nina Murray . He dabbled in British politics , becoming a member of the Conservative Party and ran unsuccessfully as a candidate in municipal council elections in Buxton in 1965 , before turning his attention to a spirited debate with the Canadian military establishment , the media and Prime Minister Pearson wherein he opposed the 1966 integration of the Canadian Armed Forces . Although clearly feeling that Canada had abandoned him following the Halifax Riot , Murray maintained his ties to Canada and last visited in 1970 , when he participated in the 25th anniversary celebrations of the Battle of the Atlantic . Leonard died peacefully in Buxton on 25 November 1971 , and his ashes were placed in St Paul ' s Church in Halifax on 17 September 1972 . His memory lived on in the Canadian Navy , where the " Admiral L . W . Murray Trophy for Gunnery Proficiency " was awarded annually at least until the early 1970s . Since his death , a number of commemorative steps have been taken , including the placing of a memorial in his honour in Pictou , a collection of his medals and related naval artifacts in the Canadian Naval Operations School ( CFNOS ) in Halifax , the naming of a Maritimes Branch of the Royal Canadian Naval Association , the renaming of Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corps NEW GLASGOW in New Glasgow , Nova Scotia to Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corps ADMIRAL MURRAY , and the naming of several naval buildings , including CFNOS building at CFB Halifax . Quote . " Except for the few months at sea in Assiniboine , my war work was a solid slog , mostly at a desk , averaging 15 hours a day with frequently a full 24 . My job was to obtain the greatest possible result from relatively inexperienced personnel . There was little opportunity for anyone to step on another ’ s toes . They were spread too thinly and there was a more responsible job for each as soon as he felt confident of his ability to take it on . In the autumn of 1941 young volunteer reserve officers who had never seen salt water before the war took command of corvettes manned by 88 men — the number of white and black keys on a piano and each with his own peculiar note — and took their full part in the Battle of the Atlantic . Experience had taught me this : to find out what you ’ re capable of , it is only necessary to get a chance to do it — and someone else must have enough confidence in you to provide that chance . In my dealings with the young RCNVR captains I did my best to give them the opportunity to find their own feet and they did it . Once having tasted success they never looked back . What a blessing that we had the bright young peoples to accept this kind of responsibility " - Admiral Murray .