Elizabeth Murray (1831-1914)

Foundation member of HSV.

Elizabeth Coombs Murray (nee Reid) joined the Historical Society of Victoria on the same day as her daughter Clara – 6 September 1909. They lived at ‘Dunellis’, 16 Valetta Street, Malvern where her daughter conducted Malvern Ladies’ College for a number of years from the 1880s until the school merged with Korowa Anglican Girls’ School in 1911.

Elizabeth Murray was born at Richmond Hill, West Tamar, Tasmania on 6 June 1831 to Scottish immigrants James Reid and Annabella Murray who arrived in Hobart from Edinburgh in 1822. She married her first cousin Andrew Carmichael Murray at Launceston in 1851 aged 20. They had ten children, including Clara, who was their fourth child and first girl.

The family moved to Victoria in 1875 and after Andrew Murray’s death in 1886, Clara ran her school from the family home. Prior to that, it was held in St George’s Church Hall, Malvern.

Clara and her mother lived at 16 Valetta Street, Malvern until Elizabeth Murray’s death on 27 March 1914 aged 83. She had been a member of the HSV for the last 5 years old her life, but took little active part in the Society, unlike her daughter Clara who in her retirement transcribed a number of reminiscences of early settlers.

Cheryl Griffin, October 2023