Leonard Warren Murray was born at Granton, Nova Scotia on 22 June 1896. His father Simon Dickson Murray (1859–1936) was a direct descendant of the Scottish immigrants who travelled to Pictou County on the Hector in 1773, and his mother was Jane Falconer (1868–1968). Simon was mid-level manager in various enterprises in Pictou Landing, and Leonard grew up close to the water. At 14 years of age, Murray left Pictou Academy to join the first intake of 21 recruits into the Royal Naval College of Canada in Halifax, which had just been created by the "Naval Service Act" of 4 May 1910.