Frank Murdoch, according to the Darling Downs Gazette on 4 September 1919, had spent two and a half years as a cutter in Savile Row in London when he purchased a tailoring business from Albert Hazell. Hazell had been a long-term referee for Toowoomba soccer who had been rejected for service after the last medical test, and instead turned his attention to helping soldiers returning from the war. Murdoch was one such soldier, and was himself a footballer, having played for Park Ridge before the war.
The story regarding his purchase of the tailoring business was one of the few that decade which used the correct spelling of his name: his soccer and war exploits were often reported with the name “F. C. Murdock” or simply “Murdock”, and the two spellings were used interchangeably in his war record.
Murdoch enlisted in July 1915 aged 23, rose quickly through the ranks from Private to Lieutenant and would finally reach France in mid-1917 with the 49th Battalion. Within two months, Murdoch was back in England after being wounded in the thigh. He returned to France in December where he saw out the war with his unit.
Murdoch returned to Australia in mid-1919 and promptly took over Hazell’s tailoring business, while his name had already been added to the Toowoomba British Football Association honour board. He became prominent in the Return Soldiers League and kept his rank as Lieutenant after being transferred to the 25th Battalion in 1921.
He remained with the Battalion into the Second World War, when he was promoted to Captain. Murdoch and Amy McDonald were married in a well-reported military wedding in 1936.