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| tlm-p_s_childhood [2020/03/22 22:06] – judith | tlm-p_s_childhood [2021/07/04 10:10] – judith |
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| {{ :duckworth_s_action_off_san_domingo_6_february_1806_nicholas_pocock.jpg?direct&400|}}//'Duckworth's Action off San Domingo, 6 February 1806' painted by Nicholas Pocock. HMS Donegal is on the left, engaging the Jupiter. Courtesy Wikicommons.// | {{ :duckworth_s_action_off_san_domingo_6_february_1806_nicholas_pocock.jpg?direct&400|}}//'Duckworth's Action off San Domingo, 6 February 1806' painted by Nicholas Pocock. HMS Donegal is on the left, engaging the Jupiter. Courtesy Wikicommons.// |
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| We don't know why he left the navy, but one likely factor is that the long peace after the Napoleonic Wars meant that a naval career no longer provided opportunities for ambitious middle-class young men. That he joined the navy rather than followed his father in the army was likely to be due to economic reasons: promotion was not by purchase in the navy. However, it helped to have a patron who could recommend you for an improved position or better ship.(({{ https://www.quora.com/In-the-days-when-officers-bought-their-commissions-in-the-British-Army-was-it-the-same-in-the-Royal-Navy}})) TLM-P’s patron was [[wp>Edward_Brace|Admiral Sir Edward Brace]], who was unable to take up his command, so TLM-P served instead under Admiral Sir John Ommaney.((//Australia's Representative Men//, ed. T.W.H. Leavitt, Improved Edition, Melbourne: Wells and Leavitt, c.1889, entry for T.L. Murray-Prior. The book used is the one TLM-P owned, signed by him and dated 14th June 1889.It is likely that TLM-P provided the information. Provenance: J. Godden.)) Service without a patron was another bar to ambition, so it is understandable that TLM-P soon resigned.\\ | We don't know why he left the navy, but one likely factor is that he was prone to being sea-sick. As well, the long peace after the Napoleonic Wars meant that a naval career no longer provided opportunities for ambitious middle-class young men. That he joined the navy rather than followed his father in the army was likely to be due to economic reasons: promotion was not by purchase in the navy. However, it helped to have a patron who could recommend you for an improved position or better ship.(({{ https://www.quora.com/In-the-days-when-officers-bought-their-commissions-in-the-British-Army-was-it-the-same-in-the-Royal-Navy}})) TLM-P’s patron was [[wp>Edward_Brace|Admiral Sir Edward Brace]], who was unable to take up his command, so TLM-P served instead under Admiral Sir John Ommaney.((//Australia's Representative Men//, ed. T.W.H. Leavitt, Improved Edition, Melbourne: Wells and Leavitt, c.1889, entry for T.L. Murray-Prior. The book used is the one TLM-P owned, signed by him and dated 14th June 1889.It is likely that TLM-P provided the information. Provenance: J. Godden.)) Service without a patron was another bar to ambition, so it is understandable that TLM-P soon resigned.\\ |
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| Traditionally, as seen, the men of the family had three career options: the military; as a member of the landed gentry; and (in the sole case of [[john_murray_murray-prior|John Murray]]) the clergy. Despite his mother, TLM-P showed no sign of wanting to be a minister of the church; the military was no longer offering opportunities for impoverished men; and the family no longer had the land to support them as members of the gentry - at least in the United Kingdom. Like so many others at this time, TLM-P decided he had a better chance in one of the many British colonies. If his family's downward social mobility and lack of opportunity in Britain were the major 'push' factors, glowing descriptions of opportunities in the colonies from the time of his birth was likely the key 'pull' factor.\\ | Traditionally, as seen, the men of the family had three career options: the military; as a member of the landed gentry; and (in the sole case of [[john_murray_murray-prior|John Murray]]) the clergy. Despite his mother, TLM-P showed no sign of wanting to be a minister of the church; the military was no longer offering opportunities for impoverished men; and the family no longer had the land to support them as members of the gentry - at least in the United Kingdom. Like so many others at this time, TLM-P decided he had a better chance in one of the many British colonies. If his family's downward social mobility and lack of opportunity in Britain were the major 'push' factors, glowing descriptions of opportunities in the colonies from the time of his birth was likely the key 'pull' factor.\\ |