W. R. E. Murphy
William Richard English-Murphy, DSO MC known as W.R.E. Murphy (26 January 1890–5 March 1975) was an Irish soldier and policeman. He served as an officer with the British Army in the First World War and later in the National Army. In the Civil War he was second in overall command of the National Army from January to May 1923. He was first Irish Commissioner of the Dublin Metropolitan Police and the last Commissioner of the force before its merger with the Garda Síochána in 1925. Thereafter he was the Deputy Commissioner of the Gardaí until his retirement in 1955. British Army Murphy was born in Danecastle, Bannow, Wexford on 26 January 1890. His parents died when he was 4. His grandparents died when he was a child. He and his sister Mae (Mary Sarah) were separately raised by relatives in Belfast and Waterford. He was completing his Master's Degree at Queens University Belfast when he followed the call of John Redmond to join the war effort and ensure Irish Independence. Ulster Regiments rejected him because he was Catholic. Seeking a regiment that treated Irish volunteers with respect, he joined the British Army in Belfast in 1915 as an officer cadet