Allan Murray
Ebullient Scottish financier based in Hong Kong who built up an impressive art collection
ALLAN MURRAY, who has died aged 72, was a celebrated figure in the financial and social life of Hong Kong, and a noted collector of Scottish art. A last representative of the breed of resourceful, hard-living expatriate Scots who built Britain’s commercial presence in Asia, Murray made his name on the equity broking side of Jardine Fleming – a joint venture between the trading house of Jardine Matheson and the London merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co. There for many years he wrote a daily market report that helped win large volumes of orders for Hong Kong shares from European and American investors.
A regular theme was “the Hang Seng Express”, Murray’s vision of the volatile local market as a locomotive that might be “storming down the track” one day but “waiting at the station” or “returning to the marshalling yard” the next. Both the firm and Murray himself prospered from his efforts – as well as from the amiability and lack of side that enabled him to build relationships of trust with the market’s dominant Chinese players. In reference to a local firm whose shares had long served him well, one associate pictured Murray latterly “enjoying the comforts of the Kwang Seng Hong Pullman Car of the Hang Seng Express”.
Jardine Fleming passed into the ownership of the US giant JPMorgan Chase in 2000, and Murray became chairman of its Hong Kong broking arm. With his explosive laugh, easy- going business style, eccentric wardrobe (favouring “Murray green”) and enthusiasm for lunch, Murray was far from the JPMorgan archetype. There were rumours that his days with the strait-laced bank might be numbered – until a leading Chinese tycoon expressed “surprise” at such an idea.
Thereafter, Murray’s American bosses recognised the value of his connections. Though decades older than many of his colleagues, his spirit stayed young; he was in post until his death.
In 1978, Murray saw for the first time the many Scottish paintings owned by Robert Fleming & Co in London, and was inspired to start what is considered the best private collection of Scottish art formed in recent decades. Acquired at a relentless pace, it far outgrew available wall-space in the Murray household and many purchases had to be stored by his Edinburgh dealer, Patrick Bourne; eventually 120 paintings were hung in the Hong Kong Club and many others loaned to Scotland’s national galleries and other public museums.
The Allan and Carol Murray Collection today includes 200 works ranging from the French court painter Jean Clouet’s portrait of James VI as a child, through Ramsay, Raeburn, Nasmyth, Landseer, the Glasgow Boys and Scottish Colourists to contemporary artists such as John Byrne and Victoria Crowe. Both the Scottish National and National Portrait Galleries now have Murray rooms.
Allan George Murray was born at Gullane in East Lothian in August 1943, and was educated at North Berwick High School. On leaving school he joined the Chartered Bank as a trainee in Manchester and London.
Having passed his bankers’ exams he was posted first to Dubai and then to Aden during the military emergency from 1964 to 1967: for three months he found himself notionally under house arrest, though only his front door was guarded, so he was free to slip out at the back. In due course he moved to Chartered’s remote branch at Buraimi Oasis in northern Oman, and in 1971 he arrived in Hong Kong to run the securities department of the newly formed Standard Chartered Bank.
He was recruited to Jardine Fleming in 1973 to take charge of its settlements operation. As a manager, his energy and optimism kept staff morale high – as did his willingness to perform Elvis Presley impersonations at staff parties, in full costume and on one occasion bursting out of a giant cake.
Murray was a former chairman of the Hong Kong Club, where he held court at a round table every lunchtime, entertaining friends and business contacts alike – but always at his own expense. He was also a voting member of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, and chairman for the past 14 years of the Shek-O Golf & Country Club, where he played with a foursome known as the Dawn Patrol at 6.15 every Sunday morning – using luminous balls in winter.
Allan Murray is survived by his wife Carol, one of five daughters of Francis Zimmern, a former chairman of the Hong Kong stock exchange; they were married in 1976.
At his packed memorial service in Hong Kong’s St John’s cathedral, Blue Suede Shoes and You Ain’t Nothing But a Hound Dog were sung, and many who attended, from taipans to club servants, wore flashes of Murray green.
Allan Murray, born August 1943, died February 4 2016