The Battle for the District Commissioners' Bungalow, Kohima Ridge, India, 13 May 1944 c.1981 (?)
Harold Claude 'Jock' Murrills (1915–2006)
The Keep Military Museum
Harold Claude 'Jock' Murrills was born at 219 London Road South, Lowestoft, Suffolk on 26th March 1915 and baptised at Kirkley St Peter & St John in Suffolk on 23rd May 1915. He was the son of Martin Claude Murrills (1878–1958), a mariner and later a boot shop manager, and his wife Polly Fanny Oxbrow (1881–1976), who had married in 1907 at Ipswich, Suffolk. In 1939, Murrills was working as a ‘tailoring display man’ and living at 14 Chalgrove Avenue, Morden, Surrey. In 1942, in Bournemouth, he married Joan W. Hilliam. That year, 'by permission of a Miss J. W. Williams of Bournemouth', Murrills exhibited 'An Old Corner, Ipswich' at Ipswich Art Club. Murrills was by then serving in the Suffolk Regiment in the Second World War. In May 1944, as a soldier in the 2nd Dorset Regiment (2nd Division), he was involved in the Battle of Kohima Ridge in Burma.
By 1951, Murrills had become well known for his expertise in display and design for retail stores and was one of the first nine Fellows of the British Display Association. In 1955, his book, The Display of Canned, Packed and Bottled Goods was published by the Blandford Press. In the same year he registered as a member of the Burma Star Association. At the time he was living at Streatham, London and later moved to Hassocks, West Sussex, where he founded an art society and was a leading member in two others, the Croydon Art Society and the Wapping Group. In 1961, the Blandford Press published his book The Practical Display Instructor, which between then and 1967 ran to seven editions.
In early November 1981, 'The Battle of Kohima', by Terence Tenison Cuneo, which is currently in the collection of the Kohima Museum in York, was unveiled. The painting was reconstructed from the memories of those that were involved, amongst them Murrills. In 2005 Murrills gave an audio account to the BBC of his involvement in the battle.
Murrills died in Brighton, Sussex, on 24th May 2006.
Kieran Owens, including information from the ‘Suffolk Artists’ website
Text source: Art Detective
