On the morning of our Annual Initiation Day started, the Murray Club along with Churchhill LOL 871 joined together to remember Bro. Gordon Hill. Gordon died at the end of 2021 and had no family. He is buried at Ballyoan Cemetery. The Club and Lodge together commissioned a Memorial Stone, so that the grave would not be unmarked and the Brother remembered appropriately. A brief reading and prayer were said and a wreath laid in Memory of a good Brother.
A big change in 2023 with the Murray Club joining with the Apprentice Boys of Derry Parent Club and the Baker Parent Club for a joint initiation Day on the last Saturday of May.
It was a worthwhile change, evident from the very large numbers walking from Bond Street to the Memorial Hall. There were so many candidates for Initiation there had to be two meetings, one for the much larger ABOD Club and another jointly for the Baker and Murray Clubs. On the day around eighty were Made across all the Clubs, nineteen for the Murray. Tremendous turnout and a positive indication of a significant bounce back after Covid.
An approach to the Parent Club Secretary early in 2023 led to a Special Meeting of SAMS Liverpool Branch in Corby in mid-May to enrol eight members who would be a core part of establishing a new Murray Club in Corby. There had been a No Surrender Club back in the 1980s, but it dissolved and issues still rumble. The mostly young coterie who wished to make a new start in Corby decided on Murray as the future Parent Club. Since May, others in the Corby area have transferred into the Parent Club. Wishing SAMS and its Corby members all the best as they work towards a new Charter for a Murray Corby Branch Club sometime in 2024.
