Neville Richard Murphy[1] (3 March 1890 – 15 July 1971)[2] was Principal of Hertford College, Oxford from 1939 to 1959.
Murphy was educated at Christ's Hospital and Brasenose College, Oxford. During World War I he served as an officer in the Royal Irish Fusiliers. A classicist and horologist,[3] he was a fellow and tutor at Hertford College, Oxford, from 1919 to 1939, and Principal of Hertford from 1939[4] to 1959.
The official history of Oxford University uses Murphy as an example of an eccentric don: he was known as the "undisclosed principal" because of his reticence and for repairing watches for undergraduates better than the college porter.[3]
His book, The Interpretation of Plato's Republic, was published by Oxford University Press in 1951.[5]
His portrait by Stanley Spencer hangs in the Senior Common Room at Hertford College.[6]