(left) and family at Point Lonsdale, Victoria, in 1910. His wife, Violet ( Hughston) is upper centre. Their daughter, Catherine – as
Catherine King a prominent broadcaster – is centre right and son William (Will) Murdoch is on the right.
First generation Helen and the Rev. James Murdoch had 14 children. He was ordained at
Cruden, Aberdeenshire, where he also married Annie Brown (in 1882). At the age of 34, Murdoch emigrated with his wife and parents to Victoria. He was prominent there as a
Presbyterian minister and published several books on theology. Two of Patrick and Annie Murdoch's six children achieved prominence,
Sir Keith Murdoch and
Ivon George Murdoch. To promote the stove, Nora Curle Smith wrote the world's
first cookbook for electric stoves, which featured 161 recipes and operating instructions for the stove, under the name "H. Nora Curle Smith":
Thermo-Electrical Cooking Made Easy (1907; reprinted 2011). , in
Murdoch, a suburb of
Perth, Western Australia. Both the university and suburb are named after Sir Walter Murdoch. Sir
Walter Murdoch, who was born at Rosehearty, was a prominent Australian academic and essayist. He married Violet Catherine Hughston in 1897. Murdoch published his first essay, "The new school of Australian poets", in 1899 and for many years he wrote a weekly column titled "Books and Men" for the
Melbourne Argus (under the pen name of "Elzevir"). In
Perth, Sir Walter Murdoch is commemorated by the names of both
Murdoch University and the suburb surrounding its main campus:
Murdoch.
Second generation (1885–1952) Keith Arthur Murdoch, later Sir Keith Murdoch, was born in
West Melbourne and grew up in the Melbourne suburb of
Camberwell. He became prominent as a journalist, while serving as a war correspondent during
World War I. In 1921, Murdoch was appointed chief editor of the
Melbourne Herald and in 1928 became managing director of its parent company,
The Herald and Weekly Times Ltd. That same year he married Elisabeth Joy Greene (1909–2012), who was later prominent as the philanthropist
Dame Elisabeth Murdoch (1909–2012). Murdoch was knighted in 1933. During
World War II, Sir Keith Murdoch served briefly in an Australian government role, as Director-General of Information.
Lieutenant Ivon George Murdoch, saw action with the
8th Battalion (
AIF) on the
Western Front during World War I.
Third generation Rupert Murdoch, born in
Melbourne, is a major international media proprietor – he chairs two United States-based companies that control most of his assets:
News Corp and
Fox Corporation. Murdoch's career as a media proprietor began in 1952, when he inherited his father's stake in
News Limited. at the
World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in
Davos, 2007 Murdoch made his first acquisition in the United States in 1973, when he purchased the
San Antonio Express-News. Soon afterwards, he founded a US
supermarket tabloid Star, and in 1976, he purchased the
New York Post. In 1981, Murdoch acquired the London
Times and
Sunday Times. He bought a major stake in
20th Century Fox in 1984, which became the basis of a new US
free to air television network,
Fox Broadcasting Company. During the 1980s and 1990s, Murdoch became involved in
pay television interests throughout the world, including
Foxtel in Australia,
STAR TV and
Tata Sky in Asia and
BSkyB,
Sky Italia and
Sky Deutschland in Europe. NewsCorp also came to control both a major international publishing house
HarperCollins, and
Dow Jones & Company, which includes
The Wall Street Journal. Rupert Murdoch has been married five times and has six children: • 1956–1967: to Patricia Booker, a flight attendant from Melbourne, with whom he had one child, Mrs
Prudence MacLeod. Torv and Murdoch had three children,
Elisabeth Murdoch (b. 1968),
Lachlan Murdoch (b. 1971) and
James Murdoch (b. 1972). They had two daughters, Grace (born 2001) and Chloe (born 2003). Tony Blair is Grace Murdoch's godfather. In June 2013, Rupert Murdoch filed for divorce from Wendi Murdoch, citing irreconcilable differences. • 2016–2022 to
Jerry Hall, an American model and actress. They divorced in 2022. • 2024– to retired
molecular biologist Elena Zhukova.
Fourth generation , Rupert's successor as chairman of
News Corp •
Prudence Murdoch (born in
Adelaide) has held directorial roles within the News Corporation empire. She has been married twice: • 1985–c. 1986, to British financier
Crispin Odey. • since 1989, to: British media executive Charles Alasdair MacLeod (usually known as Alasdair MacLeod). Both Prudence and Alasdair MacLeod hold or have held directorial and/or executive roles within the News Corporation empire. The couple have three children, James MacLeod (b. 1991), Angus MacLeod (b. 1993) and Clementine MacLeod (b. 1996). •
Elisabeth Murdoch (born in Sydney), is a media executive and company director and has been married three times: • 1993–1998: to
Elkin Kwesi Pianim, a
Ghanaian banker, with whom she had two children, Kalan Alexander Murdoch (b. 2004), Aidan Patrick Murdoch (b. 2006) and Aerin Elisabeth Murdoch (b. 2010). •
James Murdoch (born in London), is a media executive and company director. In 2000, he married the US public relations specialist and climate change activist
Kathryn Hufschmid. The couple have three children, Anneka Murdoch (b. 2003), Walter Murdoch (b. 2006) and Emerson Murdoch (b. 2008). • Grace (born 2001) • Chloe (born 2003) ==Family trust challenge (2024)==