In 1954, at his flat in Lower Marsh, in London's South Bank, Murphy planned to paint his then-girlfriend in a wedding dress.
In 1955, he and Craigie Aitchison, a fellow student and close friend, won an Abbey Travelling Scholarship[REF] and drove to Ravenna in Italy in a dilapidated old London taxi that Aitchison bought for £45 [REF].