Murray Walker OBE, the man with the most evocative voice in motorsport, had a long association with the Isle of Man and the TT in particular.

His father, Graham, competed in the event between 1920 and 1934, crowning his career with victory in the 1931 Lightweight on a 250cc Rudge.

Graham, a First World War despatch rider, also competed in the early sidecar events over the Mountain Course, finishing runner-up to Freddie Dixon in the very first three-wheel event in 1923.

Murray was born later that year and attended his first TT with his parents at the age of two.

He was immensely proud of his father’s achievements, among which were first and second places in the Lightweight TT in 1931 and 1932 respectively.

Murray served in the tank regiment during the Second World War, after which he worked as an advertising executive in London.

His debut as a sports commentator came in 1949 when he covered the TT and the British motor racing GP at Silverstone for BBC Radio.

He had an ambition to race motorbikes, like his father, but was dissuaded. Murray did compete off-road in grasstrack racing and trials, taking a first class in the Scottish Six Days and a gold medal in the ’supreme test’, the International Six Days Trial (ISDT), at Llandrindrod Wells in 1949.

It was around this period that he met and got to know Geoff Duke, who he described as a legend in his own lifetime. In later years, Murray and his wife Elizabeth stayed with Geoff and Pat Duke at the former Aragon Hotel, Port Grenaugh.

For any young lad growing up in the 1960s, he was the voice of the Saturday afternoon scrambles live on BBC Grandstand.

He commentated on the TT for more than 20 years during the golden years of the 1950s and 1960s into the 1970s. Murray also reported on the Manx Grand Prix, and calculated in total that he covered more than 200 races in the Isle of Man.

His father also commentated for the BBC for a similarly long period and for several years they collectively produced Sound Stories, long-playing records of the TT.

He had a close involvement and friendship with Mike Hailwood, right from his first race at Oulton Park in 1957 and through the peak of his career - commentating on all 12 of his TT wins (in his main career) for Norton, MV and Honda. They also wrote a book together.

Murray regarded the 1967 Senior TT duel between Hailwood and Agostini as the most exciting race he ever saw.

’In my opinion Mike was the greatest of all time.

’The TT always seemed to rise to the occasion and the Golden Jubilee Senior was truly an unforgettable race of the Titans.

’Mike was a natural-born genius in the saddle, a hell-raiser out of it, a modest and easy-going man completely free of pretentiousness and great fun to be with.

’But, rather like me, he would never have made it had it not been for his father.’

The BBC’s interest in the TT waned when the top GP stars stopped attending in the early 1970s: Ago’s last appearance was 1972 and the BBC ended its live coverage in 1974 - Murray’s last time here in a professional sense.

He also commentated on touring cars, rallying, rallycross and other aspects of motorsport, but he was very much the voice of Formula One on TV (all but the last four on BBC). He retired in 2001.

His name will always be indelibly linked with Formula One, every bit as much as some of the drivers, and he said that reporting on Nigel Mansell and Damon Hill winning world titles were two of his proudest moments.

The death of Ayrton Senna at Imola in 1994 was, he said at the time, one of the blackest days in motor racing.

’The hardest thing I ever had to deal with was the most publicised and visible accident in the history of motor sport - the death of Ayrton Senna,’ he wrote in his autobiography.

In an interview in The Times in 2019 he said cars only just beat his love of bikes, tipping 60-40 in favour of four wheels.

But Murray always spoke highly of the Isle of Man and the TT in particular. He often referred to the TT as the ’greatest motorsport event in the world.’

It has also been reported that he wished for his ashes to be scattered at Guthrie’s Memorial on the mountain climb. [Guthrie was a friend and rival of his father’s].

Murray last visited the Manx Grand Prix in 2002, then the Centenary TT in 2007 and finally the TT in 2011.