Katherine Maud Elisabeth Murray FRHistS FSA (3 December 1909 – 6 February 1998) was an English biographer and educationist.
[2] She was the third child of the inspector of schools and author H. J. R. Murray and his wife, Kate Maitland, née Crosthwaite, an amateur violinist and women's suffragette participant.
[2] During this period, she was chair of the Oxford University Archaeological Society and won a Mond scholarship to work with the Samaria excavation expedition in 1933, specially the Ahab's Palace.
[1][4][6] In 1938, she was invited to work at Girton College, Cambridge and was appointed assistant tutor in charge of student welfare and registrar.
[2] She began in the role in May that year,[2] following a 13 to 5 vote by council members despite concerns about her lack of professional expertise and the attitude she displayed at her interview.
[2][5] Murray purchased sculptures and pictures from the likes of Henry Moore, Stanley Spencer and Graham Sutherland, and invited national figures to speak to staff and students at the college.
[2] The book won Murray the British Academy's Rose Mary Crawshay Prize for English Literature and honorary degrees from the University of Sussex and the United States.
[6] Murray's funeral was held on six days later in Heyshott, Sussex and was cremated in Chichester with her ashes interred in October 1998.