William Fullerton Murray

22 October 1837, Glasgow SCO ─ 18 June 1911, Glasgow SCO

Son of William Murray, Potter, and Agnes Fullerton.

A member and office-bearer of Glasgow Chess Club. He was club champion in 1879.

Mr Murray played in the West v East of Scotland matches in 1871, 1872, 1880, 1881, 1882, 1889, 1890, and 1892.

He several times played for the West of Scotland Challenge Cup, but lost matches to John Crum and Sheriff Spens.

Murray defeated Samuel Rosenthal during that master's visit to Glasgow in 1871 in a game "lasting over both diets of one day and displaying some most elegant movements."

He was a cousin of Alexander Keir Murray.

Mr Murray is associated with the Caledonian Pottery, which had been founded in 1800 under a different name. The business became known as W.F. Murray & Co. on the death of his father in 1868. He later moved the business to Rutherglen.  

Sources:
Unpublished History of Glasgow Chess Club
Glasgow CC membership list of 1879.
ScotlandsPeople website
Ancestry.com
http://www.edochess.ca/ (Rod Edwards)
The Importance of British Material Culture to Historical Archaeologies of the Nineteenth Century, by Alasdair Mark Brooks. U of Nebraska Press, 2016.

Alan McGowan
Historian/Archivist, Chess Scotland  

added 11/5/2022