Thomas Lodge Murray-Prior (13 November 1819-1892)[1] was an Australian politician. He held the office of Postmaster-General in Queensland, Australia, whilst Member of the Legislative Council of Queensland.
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Born in Wells, Somerset, England, the son of Thomas Murray-Prior (an officer in the Hussars who served at the Battle of Waterloo), he was educated by private tutors in Engaldn and in Brussels under Rev. William Drury. On 3 September 1846 he married Matilda Harpur (niece of Charles Harpur).[2] His first wife died in 1868 and on 18 December 1872 he married Nora Clarina Barton, an aunt of poet A B Patterson.
Murray-Prior took up sheep farming on a large scale; during one scab outbreak in 1858 he lost 8,000 sheep; during that same year he sold his sheep farm and bought a banana plantation at Ormiston.
In 1860 he failed to be elected to the seat of East Moreton, and in 1861 became a Postal Inspector - he became Postmaster-General in 1862. When this position became a political post, he was nominated to the Legislative Council on 10 April 1866. In 1863 Rachel Henning wrote: "I suppose it does not require any great talent to be a Postmaster General. I hope not, for such a goose I have seldom seen. He talked incessantly and all his conversation consisted of pointless stories of which he himself was the hero."
Murray-Prior died at Whytecliffe, Nudah on 31 December 1892. He was survived by seven of the twelve children of his first marriage and seven of the eight children from his second. His eldest daughter, Rosa Praed, was a noted author. Another daughter, Elizabeth Catherine;[3] she married John Robert Jardine (1847–1911), a grandson of Sir Alexander Jardine, 6th Baronet.[4] A noted collector of paintings, some of his collection is now held by Brisbane Art Gallery.
His great-great granddaughter, Susan Cullen-Ward, married Crown Prince Leka of Albania, only son of King Zog I of Albania.