Dominic Ignatius Murphy

Background

Dominic Murphy was born on May 31, 1847, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Dominic J. Murphy, a cotton manufacturer.

Education

Murphy was educated in the private and public schools of that city, graduating from the Central High School with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1865.

Career

Murphy entered the Pension Office in Washington as a clerk on March 22, 1871, and made an especially good record there, rising grade by grade to be chief of division, supervising special examiner, and chief clerk of the office.

In 1893 he became deputy commissioner, and in 1896 President Cleveland appointed him commissioner of pensions, in which office he served with unusual efficiency for a year.

From 1902 to 1904 Murphy engaged in private practice as a patent attorney in Washington, and also, from 1903 to 1905, he edited and published a weekly journal entitled the New Century, devoted to the interests of the Catholic Church. He was prominent in Catholic societies and was a trustee of the St. Vincent Orphan Asylum.

On April 30, 1904, he was appointed secretary of the Isthmian Canal Commission and served until May 23, 1905, when President Roosevelt appointed him consul at Bordeaux, France. While at that post he acted also, in 1907, as honorary commissioner to the International Maritime Exposition at Bordeaux. His next post was at St. Gall, Switzerland, where he served from 1909 to February 7, 1914, when he was transferred to Amsterdam.

On February 22, 1915, Murphy was promoted to consul general and assigned to Sofia, Bulgaria. He was temporarily detailed to the American consulate-general at London, England, from May 20 to October 15, 1915, for special duty in the war claims department in charge of claims against the British government. He then returned to Sofia, where during the World War his services were particularly important and valuable, both to his own country and to Bulgaria. He is credited with having induced the Bulgarian government to ask the Allies for an armistice. After the war General Ludendorff wrote with feeling of Murphy's influence. While at Sofia he was also in charge of British interests in Bulgaria, and was presented by the British government with a silver bowl for "very special services" there to British prisoners of war and interned subjects.

On July 8, 1919, he was transferred to Stockholm, where he remained until July 1, 1924, when he retired. During his term at Stockholm, he contributed efficiently to the development of the commercial and cultural relations between Sweden and the United States. After his retirement he continued to reside there until his death on April 13, 1930.

Achievements

• The statesman Dominic I. Murphy was the first American diplomat resident in Bulgaria. While serving in Bulgaria, Murphy conducted official visits to inspect prison camps in the country and distributed funds to needy Allied prisoners of war and worked to improve their facilities, especially with regard to the easing of administrative restrictions. A hospital and a street in Sofia are named after him.

Connections

On October 24, 1904, Dominic Murphy married Bessie Atkinson, by whom he had two sons.

Father:

Dominic J. Murphy

Wife:

Bessie Murphy (Atkinson)