Rosemary Murray


Dame Alice Rosemary Murray, was an English chemist and educator. She was instrumental in establishing New Hall, Cambridge, now Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, and was the first woman to hold the office of Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge.

Background Information

Rosemary Murray was born in Havant, Hampshire, the oldest of six children born to Admiral Arthur John Layard Murray, a scion of the Murray Publishing Family, and Ellen Maxwell Spooner, herself the daughter of William Archibald Spooner, Warden of New College, Oxford. After attending Downe House, Newbury, she studied as an undergraduate chemist and doctoral student at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She completed a BA degree in 1936, and received a DPhil degree in 1938 for her research on aspects of isomerism.

Teaching career

Rosemary Murray went on to hold teaching positions at the Royal Holloway College, the University of Sheffield and Cambridge. She served in various positions throughout her career:
While at the University of Sheffield Murray did research on organic chemistry as part of a team working for the Ministry of Supply. In 1942, she joined the WRNS, rising to the rank of chief officer. She worked at Chatham barracks as chief officer directing demobilisation.
A 2013 BBC report
describes a secret major control bunker, later buried beneath the lawns of Magee College, Derry, Northern Ireland. From 1941 this bunker, part of Base One Europe, together with similar bunkers in Derby House, Liverpool, and Whitehall was used to control one million Allied personnel and fight the Nazi U-boat threat. Murray was stationed at Base One Europe as WRNS Chief Officer and responsible for the welfare of 5,600 Wrens stationed at Londonderry.

New Hall, Cambridge

In 1946, the mistress of Girton College invited Murray to apply for a job at Cambridge. There, Murray played a major role in establishing New Hall, to address the needs of women students. She served as the first president of New Hall from its founding in 1954 until 1981.
In 1975 she became the University of Cambridge's first female vice-chancellor for a two-year term during which time she introduced student representation on university committees, founded the Cambridge Society, and inaugurated the clinical medical school, the new music school, and West Road concert hall.
In 1980, Murray published the booklet New Hall, 1954–1972: the Making of a College.
In 2008, it was announced that New Hall would be renamed Murray Edwards College, in honour of the vision of its first President, Rosemary Murray, and the generosity of the Edwards family.

Town and gown

Murray was a magistrate in Cambridge for 30 years from 1953, and was the first female deputy lieutenant of Cambridgeshire in 1982. She was president of the National Association of Adult Education from 1977 to 1980. She was a member of the Committee on Higher Education in Northern Ireland chaired by Sir John Lockwood, which recommended
the closure of Magee College as well as the location of Northern Ireland's 2nd University being Coleraine and led to the controversial creation of the New University of Ulster, from which she was later awarded a Doctor of Science honorary degree. She was a member of the Armed Forces Pay Review Body. She was a director of Midland Bank Ltd, and an independent director of The Observer.

Achievements

Dame Rosemary Murray was the first woman to serve as the following:
She died at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford on 7 October 2004, aged 91, following a heart operation.