Early Years
The son of Hugh Victor Melvin and Maisie Winifred Driscoll, Murray Melvin left his North London secondary school as Head Prefect. A qualification he says he gained by always having clean fingernails and well combed hair. At his leave-taking ceremony, the Headmaster informed his parents, Maisie and Victor Melvin: "His fingers tell me he should be put to the piano", a subject not on the school curriculum and not mentioned while he had attended the school.
He started work as an office boy for a firm of shipping agents in Bouverie Street in the City.
To help channel the energies of the young after the disturbing times of the war, his parents had helped to found a youth club in Hampstead, financed by the Co-operative Society of which they were long standing members. A drama section formed with Murray its most enthusiastic member.
A short-lived job as an import and export clerk in a shipping office followed two unhappy years of National Service in the Royal Air Force (his father had served in the RAF during the Second World War). He inadvertently exported quantities of goods to destinations that had not ordered them.
He was employed as clerk and secretary to the Director of the Royal Air Force Sports Board at the Air Ministry, then in Kingsway. Knowing nothing about sport, apart from Littlewoods Pools, he considered his clean fingernails, well combed hair and his father's service had done the trick.
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Famous quotes related to early years:
“Even today . . . experts, usually male, tell women how to be mothers and warn them that they should not have children if they have any intention of leaving their side in their early years. . . . Children don’t need parents’ full-time attendance or attention at any stage of their development. Many people will help take care of their needs, depending on who their parents are and how they chose to fulfill their roles.”
—Stella Chess (20th century)