Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-

Born in Bolton, Lancashire on 25th May 1894, Geoffrey Franklin Murphy was baptised at Christ Church, Walmsley the following month. He was the first child of civil engineer, surveyor and architect Charles Franklin Murphy and his wife Mary Ann (nee Stott), his wife of one year. In 1901 the family, consisting of Geoffrey and his younger siblings Ethel Dorothy, Mary Irene, Leonard and Elizabeth Aileen were living in Beech House, Turton, Lancashire, but in 1902 the family moved to Morpeth.

Educated at Morpeth Grammar School and North Eastern Counties School, Barnard Castle on 3rd June 1913 Geoffrey left Glasgow on board the SS Saturnia bound for Canada, intending to make for Vancouver and a life as a surveyor.

One of the first to enlist after the declaration of war Geoffrey travelled to the newly built camp at Valcartier, Quebec on 24th September 1914 to become Sapper 45155 in the Canadian Engineers. Charles named his father living at Lloyds Bank House in Morpeth as his next of kin, mentioned his experience gained as a member of a local militia group and his work as a surveyor and he was posted to the 3rd Field Company.

With strength of 15 officers and 299 other ranks the company left Quebec on 3rd October 1914 aboard SS Arcadian arriving in England twelve days later and made their way to camp on Salisbury Plain.

On 11th February 1915 the Field Company arrived in France as one of the three field companies of the 1st Canadian Divisional Engineers, and made their way to Hazebrouck, where the troops were responsible for the construction of defences, sanitation systems, water supplies, bridging, and assisting with trench raids. While stationed there Sapper Murphy was troubled with boils and spent three weeks being treated firstly at a field ambulance and then at a casualty clearing station.

Returning to duty at the end of March the Engineers made their way into the Ypres Salient in Belgium at the beginning of April. It was in fighting north east of St. Jean that 45155 Sapper Geoffrey Franklin Murphy was killed in action on 25th April 1915.

Exact details of his burial were recorded on his Circumstances of Casualty form as “near farm known as Mouse Trap, about fifty yards from barn and a water bottle containing particulars placed over the grave”, but post war his body could not be found or identified and he is remembered on the Menin Gate Memorial.

Morpeth Herald 14/05/1915 carries a brief obituary:

Mr and Mrs Murphy, of Lloyd’s Bank House, Morpeth, have received from the Canadian Record Office, official notification that their son, Geoffrey Franklin, was killed in action on the 9th [sic] inst. He was in Vancouver when war broke out, and he joined the Canadian Engineers and came to this country with the first contingent. He was home on leave at Christmas. He was educated at the Morpeth Grammar School, and the North-Eastern Counties School, Barnard Castle. He was 20 years of age.

Geoffrey's father Charles Franklin Murphy designed the Cenotaph in Morpeth and the War Memorial Cross at the King Edward VI School in Morpeth.

Geoffrey Franklin Murphy is remembered in Morpeth on M17.01, M17.06, M17.09, M17.12 and M17.29 and at Barnard Castle School B135.20

In Canada he is remembered on their Virtual War Memorial and in their Book of Remembrance.

Canadian Book of Remembrance
Canadian Virtual Memorial
The CWGC entry for Sapper Murphy