George Gilbert Aimé Murray OM FBA (2 January 1866 - 20 May 1957) was an Australian-born British[1] classical scholar and public intellectual, with connections in many spheres. He was an outstanding scholar of the language and culture of Ancient Greece, perhaps the leading authority in the first half of the twentieth century. He is the basis for the character of Adolphus Cusins in his friend George Bernard Shaw's play Major Barbara, and also appears as the chorus figure in Tony Harrison's play Fram.
Murray was born in Sydney, Australia. His father, Sir Terence Aubrey Murray, who died in 1873, had been a Member of the New South Wales Parliament; Gilbert's mother, Agnes Ann Murray (née Edwards), ran a girls' school in Sydney for a few years. Then, in 1877, Agnes emigrated with Gilbert to the UK, where she died in 1891.[2]
Murray was educated at Merchant Taylors' School and St John's College, Oxford.
From 1889-1899, Murray was Professor of Greek at the University of Glasgow.[3] There was a break in his academic career from 1899 to 1905, when he returned to Oxford; he interested himself in dramatic and political writing. After 1908 he was Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Oxford.[4]
From 1925-1926 Murray was the Charles Elliot Norton Lecturer at Harvard University.