Rupert Murdoch Family History

Keith Rupert Murdoch was born on March 11, 1931 to Sir Keith and Elisabeth Murdoch in Melbourne, Australia.  The couple had four children, but Rupert was the only son.

Rupert was twenty-one and studying at Oxford University in England when he got the news in 1952 that his father had died.  He returned to take charge of the family business. After liquidation of his father’s Herald stake to pay taxes, he was left with remnants of his newspaper holdings.

Rupert’s Media Empire.  The business  had passed from father to son.  In the years that followed Rupert Murdoch was to expand into Britain and America and into TV and film, making him the international media mogul that he is today.

His father might have recognized some of the challenges that he faced, from the phone hacking scandal in Britain to Fox News’ intrusion into right-wing politics in America (and its massive payout to Dominion Voting Systems in 2023).  But his father had died early and he was not in charge of his empire as his son still was at the age of ninety years plus.

Rupert had begun paring back on some parts of his business in 2019, selling his movie business 21st Century Fox to Bob Iger of Disney.  Yet he remained at the head of the Murdoch empire until September 2023 when, at the age of ninety-two, he stepped down in favor of his eldest son Lachlan.

However, his plan to pass control of his media business to Lachlan whom he believes shares his conservative views, has hit a roadblock.  His other siblings of that generation – Prue, Liz and the troublesome James – h0ave objected.

Rupert’s Scottish Forebears

The name Murdoch has been associated with the village of Gargunnock seven miles west of Stirling in Stirlingshire, specifically with the Leckie estate where Murdoch Leckie once held lands.  The Old Leckie Farm is to be found in Gargunnock today.

The Murdochs here were tenant farmers in the 18th century.  William Murdoch held the Redhall farm outside of Gargunnock in the 1770’s.  One of his sons John was also a tenant farmer.  Another son Peter, born in 1781, moved to Stirling and was a merchant there.  His son James, born in 1818, was first recorded at Pitsligo in Aberdeenshire when he married Helen Garden in 1848.

The Rev. James Murdoch was a minister of the Free Church of Scotland at Rosehearty in Aberdeenshire.  He and Helen were the parents of fourteen children.  He died in 1884, the year that some of his offspring had decided to make the move to Australia.

The First Generation in Australia

The Murdochs that came to Melbourne, Victoria in 1884 included Patrick aged 34 and his wife Annie, Nora aged 23, and Walter just ten.  They had, however, been preceded by another sibling Ivan who had met his death in New Zealand in 1880, aged just twenty-two.

Nora Murdoch.  Nora married David Curle-Smith and moved to Western Australia.  Her husband pioneered a new type of electric stove and Nora wrote the first ever cookbook for electric stoves in 1907.

Walter Murdoch.  Walter also made the move to Western Australia, settling in Perth.  He became a founding Professor of English and the Chancellor of the University of Western Australia.

“In 1970, the Prime Minister, on announcing the new university name in Western Australia as Murdoch University said: ‘He is a distinguished scholar and a man of letters.  His name gives dignity to our new university.’  A few weeks later, at the age of 96, Sir Walter Murdoch died.”

Patrick Murdoch.  Patrick meanwhile for forty years was a minister at the Trinity Presbyterian church in Camberwell, an affluent suburb of Melbourne.  His clergyman’s stipend there was low.

Yet he had the more notable offspring.  His son was Keith Murdoch, who founded the Murdoch newspaper empire, and his grandson Rupert Murdoch, the international media mogul.

The Next Generation

Rupert’s Father.  Patrick’s son Keith was born in Melbourne in 1885.  Cursed with a stammer, this initially inhibited his journalistic efforts.  But the First World War would establish his credentials as a political correspondent.

As a young reporter Keith Murdoch had visited the Australian troops fighting in Gsllipoli.  He learnt there that the campaign had been a secret disaster.  His countrymen were dying by the thousands.

Press reports were supposed to be submitted to military censors.  But Keith – exhibiting a rebellious streak and a nose for a great story – smuggled out news of the slaughter in an 8,000 word letter.  The dispatch circulated widely in Australia, sparking public outrage.

His Media Empire.  Keith returned to Australia in 1921 to be chief editor of the Melbourne Herald.  It was at this time that he learnt the ropes of popular journalism and put them into practice – how to sell papers with crime stories and lurid pictures, how to build a circulation, and how to ward off competition.

He was very successful with the Melbourne Herald and by the late 1920’s had begun to acquire newspapers elsewhere in Australia and to expand into radio.  His empire continued to develop in the postwar years, but he died unexpectedly in 1952 at the age of sixty-seven.

Sir Keith’s wife Elizabeth lived on to the age of a hundred and three, not dying until 2012.

A Broadside from Keith Murdoch

Keith Murdoch had been in London at the onset of World War One and became irate at the British treatment of him and his compatriots. This broadside found its way to the desk of the Australian Prime Minister of his day:

“The conceit and self-complacency of the red feathered men are equalled only by their incapacity. Along the line of communications, especially at Moudros, are countless high officers and conceited young cubs who are plainly only playing at war.

What can you expect of men who have never worked seriously, who have lived for their appearance and for social distinction and self satisfaction, and who are now called on to conduct a gigantic war?

Kitchener now has a terrible task in getting pure work out of these men whose motives can never be pure for they are unchangeably selfish.  Appointments to the general staff are made from motives of friendship and social influence.  Australians now loathe and detest any Englishman wearing red.”

Rupert Murdoch’s Family Tree

• Rev. James Murdoch m. Helen Garden from Rosehearty, Aberdeenshire (1826-1905) in Aberdeenshire in 1848
• – Patrick Murdoch (1850-1940). Presbyterian minister in Australia
• – Francis Murdoch (1852-1934), moved to Canada
• – James Murdoch (b. 1854) m. Anna Blaikie, stayed in Scotland
• – William Murdoch (b. 1856). stayed in Scotland
• – Ivan Murdoch (1858-1880), died in New Zealand
• – Andrew Murdoch (1859-1902) m. Ella Burton in South Africa
• – Helen (Nora) Murdoch (1861-1924) m. David Curle-Smith and moved to Western Australia
• – Walter Murdoch (1874-1970) m. Violet Hughston, became University of Western Australia chancellor

• Rev. Patrick John Murdoch m. Annie Brown (1856-1945) in Aberdeenshire in 1882 and came to Australia in 1884
• – Keith Murdoch (1885-1952), newspaper baron
• – Francis Murdoch (1887-1933)
• – Alec Murdoch (1889-1920)
• – Ivon Murdoch (1892-1958) m. Alvon Anderson
• – Alan Murdoch (1894-1971) m. Hilda Munro

• Sir Keith Murdoch m. Elisabeth Greene (1909-2012) in Melbourne in 1928
• – Helen Murdoch (1929-2004) m. Geoff Handbury
• – Rupert Murdoch (b. 1931)
• – Anne Murdoch (1936-2022) m. Milan Kantor
• – Janet Murdoch (b. 1939) m. John Calvert-Jones

• Rupert Murdoch from Melbourne m. Patricia Booker (1928-2000) in 1956 (divorced in 1967); rem. Anna Torv (b. 1944) in 1967 (divorced in 1999); rem. Wendi Deng from China (b. 1968) in 1999 (divorced in 2011); rem. Jerry Hall from America (b. 1956) in 2016 (divorced in 2022); and rem. Elena Zhukova from Russia (b. 1957) in 2024
• – Prudence (Prue) Murdoch (b. 1958 in Adelaide) m. Alastdair MacLeod, with Patricia
• – Elizabeth (Liz) Murdoch (b. 1968 in Sydney) m. Elkin Planim, Matthew Freud and Keith Tyson, with Anna
• – Lachlan Murdoch (b. 1971 in London) m. Sarah O’Hare, with Anna
• – James Murdoch (b. 1972 in London) m. Kathryn Hufschmid, with Anna
• – Grace Murdoch (b. 2001 in New York) with Wendi
• – Chloe Murdoch (b. 2003 in New York) with Wendi