Among the tales Murphy might have recounted was the reason for his deafness.

Source: https://beachmetro.com/2023/11/10/remembrance-day-2023-william-albert-heal-was-among-25-malvern-collegiate-alumni-killed-in-the-first-world-war/

Disease of the muscles, bones or joints is also listed, alongside trauma to limbs, blindness, deafness, heart disease and chest disease.

Source: https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/uk-world-news/dwp-warns-people-could-missing-28134913

In 1801, a few years before completing his Violin Concerto, Beethoven wrote in a letter of his encroaching deafness, “From a distance I do not hear the high notes of the instruments and the singers’ voices.”

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/17/arts/music/new-york-philharmonic.html

It’s just, you know, one aspect of being human – deafness, blindness, mobility – rather than this objectified, separate, stigmatised thing.’

Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-12241577/SELINA-MILLS-says-losing-sight-wasnt-desperate-situation-people-imagine.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490