A celebration of the life of John Murray, the founder of Cornwall Garage Group who died recently, will be held on the evening of February 21.
His son Grant said all would be welcome and people can contact him by email on grant@cgg.lcbroadband.co.uk for details.
John Murray had a successful career in professional ice hockey before moving into the forecourt sector.
John Cyril Mole Murray (known as Johnny) was born on January 21 1923 in Camden Town, and brought up in north London.
A keen skater, he was just beginning a career as a professional ice hockey player with Wembley’s club, the Lions, when the war intervened.
He joined the army and was made a captain in the Royal Engineers by the the age of 21, one of the Army’s youngest in this rank at the time.
He ended his war service as an acting major but passed up the opportunity to rise through the ranks and re-signed with the Lions for the first post-war season. “All I wanted to do was play ice hockey,” he later recalled.
He was a member of the UK’s 1948 Winter Olympic ice hockey team, the last time Britain took part in the Winter Games. He also played in six World Championships, captaining the squad on three occasions, and served as a vice-president of the British Ice Hockey Association.
In addition to playing for the national side he also managed it, and carried on playing until the age of 45.
With his father’s permission he then sold the family’s confectionery and tobacconists business and used the proceeds to buy his first petrol filling station.
For 49 years he was managing director of the Cornwall Garage Group, which at its height had 44 petrol filling stations in southern England.
In the most recent Forecourt Trader Top 50 Indies Cornwall Garage Group was ranked 14 with 17 sites.
He married, in 1953, Pam Williams, a former dancer with the International Ballet company. He died in hospital in Miami after suffering a stroke following a steak dinner on board ship at the end of a Caribbean cruise with Pam and one of his sons.
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