Paul Nicholas Murphy

Paul Nicholas Murphy
Died 7th August 1986
Aged 21
Occupation: Motorcyle Courier
Lived in Crawley
Family: Dad Tony, Mum Rosina, Brother Richard (and Sister-in-Law Kim), Sister Rachel (and Brother-in-Law Mark who came on the scene after Paul's death), Fiancee Karen and almost family - 2 great mates; Gel (Gerard) and Karl and also various aunts, uncles and cousins.
Paul died doing his job as a Motorcycle Courier (which he had only been doing a week) - enroute to a client in London a lorry pulled straight across his path without seeing him (despite the fact Paul had a reflective suit on as well as his headlight) and Paul was unable to avoid a collision. The impact caused severe crush injuries to his chest and he also suffered a fractured skull. He died before he got to hospital. The lorry driver was convicted of careless driving (he got a £200 fine and 3 penalty points - what price a life eh?!!!).

Paul was a kind, considerate person always with a very caring personality. saying that he could also be a pain in the backside! But then I would say that because I was his brother and like all brothers we didn't always get on a 100% of the time!
Paul went through the whole Mod revival thing - he had all the clothes; two-tone suit, Fred Perry shirts, black-and-white 'Jam' style shoes, the parka with obligatory Union Jack on the back and he had a Lambretta 150 scooter. He loved to go down to Brighton on the bank holidays with all his mates and even got into rucks with the rockers and skins that also went down!
Paul loved his music - initially punk like me then the mod stuff: The Jam, Secret Affair, Nine Below Zero and older stuff like The Who, Small Faces etc. Have great memories of the time me and Paul went to a couple of gigs together when we were both going through the Mod thing we both went and saw The Jam twice - at Brighton and then at Crawley with a crowd of mates. We then both progressed onto Rock music in particular the groups Simple Minds, U2 and Big Country. Paul was particularly heavily influenced in his style of clothing by Big Country and U2 and loved nothing better than to wear a white t-shirt with the tartan lumberjack style shirt over the top with cut-off sleeves, a pair of jeans with boots and heavy leather studded belt.
Paul also loved to play guitar - he played electric guitar and had his own group 'Living with Colour'. They weren't great but did actually get to play a gig at The Beehive Social Club near Gatwick. I have to say Paul that you certainly lived your life 'with colour' and brought colour to the lives of all those around you!
Tragically Paul wrote his own very poignant epitaph just a year before he died - we had recently lost an aunty (Janet) at the young age of 31 through heart failure. This deeply upset both myself and Paul and was our first experience of death in our family. Paul penned a song in memory of her and the following verse from the song was used on his own headstone:

We've had the wind knocked out of us
But we'll come around
And as long as we remember
You'll still be around
Love stretches throughout mortality and beyond
Life's only a game
And we all hurt the same.

Paul was also into the CB radio thing at the time he died, his CB handle was 'Smeagle' the character from Lord of the Rings and he had some good friends on there, many of whom attended his funeral. One of them (Colin - handle 'Russian Spy') raced Paul's car at a destruction derby after Paul's death with his name painted on the side.
When Paul left us it was such a tragic loss and deeply affected the whole family. It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my life when I went up with my mum and dad to identify the body.
Well Paul you have more family now because you have a brother-in-law Mark, 2 nephews and 2 nieces (my sister and I have one boy and one girl each) - Stacey, Ryan, Alanna and Tyler have all been taught about you, we only wish you could have met them in person!
I have uploaded the following music to commemorate my brother - 'Up on the Catwalk' a superb Simple Minds track, 'Chasing Cars' by Snow Patrol (after my brother's time but I know he would have loved this track), 'Boy About Town' by The Jam kind of sums Paul up and could have been about him, 'Oh Jungleland' - Paul and I loved this track by Simple Minds, 'When You're Young' by The Jam another track that was very relevant to Paul, 'Wish You Were Here' by Simple Minds has very poignant lyrics, 'Lost Patrol' - superb track by another of Paul's favourite bands Big Country and finally 'One' by U2, again this was after Paul's time but he loved U2 and know he would have loved this track. Click on the blue play button above the memorial menu to hear these tracks.
God bless you Paul - we will never forget about you and know you are looking over us!