He entered the
Foreign Office in 1873 and transferred to
HM Treasury in 1880. From 1892 to 1894 he was private secretary to
Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone in his role as
First Lord of the Treasury, and became principal private secretary to his successor,
Lord Rosebery, until 1895. In 1897, Murray was appointed chairman of the
Board of Inland Revenue. In 1899 he became secretary to the
General Post Office and in 1903 returned to the Treasury as Joint
Permanent Secretary, in charge of administrative matters while
Sir Edward Hamilton handled the financial affairs. On Hamilton's retirement in October 1907, Murray became sole permanent secretary. In 1909, Murray was involved in lobbying various
Crossbench peers in the
House of Lords to reject the
Chancellor of the Exchequer's proposed budget. On 19 July 1910 he was appointed to the
Privy Council, entitling him to the style "The Right Honourable". He retired on 23 July 1911. From 1914, Murray played a prominent part in the management of the
Prince of Wales's Fund. In 1915 he became chairman of the committee on the employment of soldiers and sailors disabled in the war. He was also a member of the
Haldane Committee, which reported on the machinery of government in 1918 ==Personal life==