Denis Murphey

Born 1937. Met Jim Ede as an undergraduate. Says the then University Treasurer, Trevor Gardner, knew an eccentric genius when he saw one. He saw the potential of Kettle’s Yard and decided to take it on. Denis was an administrator at Magdalene College and had direct dealings with Jim when he acted as Secretary for the Kettle’s Yard Committee. Says of Jim, “He wrote more letters in a day than a university administrator did in a week.” One day he drove Jim down to London to buy a Ben Nicholson from the Marlborough Gallery and noticed he had a plastic bag on his lap. In it was a Brancusi plaster ‘Head’. He helped Jim sort out a pension from some of the funds at Kettle’s Yard. He also visited Jim in Edinburgh in connection with the aftermath of him leaving. At the time of interview he was retired and living opposite Kettle’s Yard.