William Hutchinson Murray was born in Liverpool in 1913 and developed a passion for mountaineering in the Scottish Highlands during the 1930s, making a series of notable winter ascents. During the Second World War he served with the British Army and was captured in North Africa in 1942.

While a prisoner of war, he wrote the manuscript of Mountaineering in Scotland on rough paper; after it was confiscated, he rewrote the work from memory. Published in 1947, it became a classic of the genre, followed by The Scottish Himalayan Expedition in 1951.

After the war he joined Himalayan expeditions, including the 1951 reconnaissance of Mount Everest that helped identify the route used for the first ascent in 1953. He also became a prominent campaigner for conservation of the Highlands. He died in 1996.