20.06.2017

W L. Murray 1930-2017

We have received the sad news of the death of mobile crane veteran Bill Murray, following a long illness.

Murray joined the export department of Coles Cranes – or the British Crane Company as was for a brief time - in 1962 and remained with the company for much of his career. When owner Acrow collapsed in 1984 and the company was acquired by Grove Manufacturing Murray moved to the used equipment and refurbishment operation - Crane & Machinery Services. He later set up business on his own within the used crane business.

The family is planning a private funeral but there might be a memorial lunch held by friends and past associates in September? We also plan to provide a more detailed obituary as soon as we have more information.
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Bill Murray in his prime

The following letter from Dick Lloyd provides a good deal more detail on the Bill Murray's life and career:

Bill Murray was my closest friend in the Crane Industry. We first met in 1962 when he joined Coles Cranes as an export sales executive, where I had already served five years. Bill brought with him a lot of experience from a varied career before then. Born in Scotland (he never lost his soft brogue), he followed his schooling with a five year engineering apprenticeship with Hendersons of Aberdeen. He then joined the Merchant Navy and served as a junior engineering officer on troopships sailing to the Far East, travelling between Kobe and Pusan during the Korean War. Following that he worked for the Elder Dempster Shipping Line travelling to and from West Africa. In 1955 he went out to India as an engineer on Tea Plantations for three years, returning briefly to UK in 1957 after marrying his wife, Liz, he then moved to another assignment in Ceylon with Walker & Son. The couple finally came back to the UK in 1961.

Bill spent most of his selling days for Coles in Scandinavia, but he volunteered to help me out on a very long trip to Poland in 1963, a favour I have never forgotten. Trips of a month were quite usual for us married export salesman (a long suffering wife was an essential), but this would have been two months for me but for Bill, and this cemented our friendship. After I left Coles in 1965, Bill added Poland to his portfolio. By the time that I returned to the Steel Group in 1970, Bill had moved to the Crane and Machinery Services, the used equipment division of Coles, serving as manager up until the Acrow group collapse in 1984. He then set up on his own and again we co-operated when I had established my small crane and excavator agency in Poland. When lack of money in the immediate post Communist era made sales of new equipment very difficult, finding a market outside of Poland for used Coles cranes was a life-saver for me, thanks to Bill.

Bill was never a high pressure salesman, but he gained the confidence of his many customers with a blend of charm and wit, backed by his wide experience. He will always be particularly remembered for his wonderful sense of humour - as a young man he has been known to walk across the road on his hands! Right up until weeks before his death, despite failing health, he continued to send out witty e-mails to his many friends.

An ex-Rugby Union player, he was a keen fan, and, after Scotland or Wales (the land of my fathers) had played in the Six Nations, it was a matter of rivalry between us as to who would pick up the phone first to discuss the match. He had an amazing laid-back philosophical attitude to life which I often envied. He will be sorely missed by wife Liz, daughter Jane and son Michael, and by many others too.

Yours
Dick Lloyd.