She was a socialist and member of the Fabian Society, active in various suffrage campaigns, and received an OBE for her efforts coordinating Reading's refugee programme during the Second World War.

[2] Edith Julia Morley was born at 25 Craven Hill Gardens, Bayswater, central London, in 1875.

[4] She recalled in her memoir that she had not liked being a girl, being impatient of the restrictions placed on her activities by Victorian notions of decorum, such as wearing gloves and a veil to preserve her complexion.

[3] From the age of five Morley was sent to a local kindergarten which was run by a natural history enthusiast, nicknamed "Brownie" by the family.

[4] She spent "long and happy hours" at the Natural History Museum, London, recalling a memorable experience of being asked to tea by the Director and helping him and his assistant identify shells.

[4] At the age of 14, she was sent to Hanover to learn German and to be "turned into a 'young lady' and acquire some of the feminine accomplishments I refused to have anything to do with at home".

She was not instructed in Latin, mathematics, or science, noting that absence would also have been reflected in private schools in England.

[3] Morley began teaching at King's College in 1899, taking a class in Gothic and Germanic philology.

[11][12] The University of Reading holds a collection of her papers, including correspondence (1914–1939), lecture notebooks (1893–1914), photographs, and a memoir entitled Looking Before and After, which was published posthumously in 2016.