Eunice Murray

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Another local heroine was born #OTDin 1878!

Eunice Guthrie Murray (1878 – 1960) was a Scottish suffrage campaigner and author. She was the only Scottish woman in the first election open to women in 1918.




Murray was born on 21st January in Cardross to American-born abolitionist parents David Murray and Frances Porter Stoddard. Her father was a leading lawyer and both her parents were avid supporters of the women's movement. Murray was educated at St Leonards School, and then undertook voluntary work with the League of Pity.

In 1908, she joined the Women's Freedom League, and was soon appointed its secretary for the whole of Scotland. She became its leading figure in Glasgow, and was president of its Scottish Council in 1913. She opposed the undemocratic nature of the Women's Social and Political Union and so did not become involved with it. 

However, in 1913 she was arrested for addressing a crowd outside Downing Street after having attended the ''International Woman Suffrage Alliance'' conference in Budapest. She blamed the government for forcing the suffragettes to take militant action.

Murray chaired the September 1917 Scottish Council of Women's Freedom League to review their peaceful Clyde Campaign, and to discuss future policy including a focus on 'social welfare', and a tour of Scotland raising awareness of the coming 'Representation of the People' Bill.

During World War I, Murray also worked at William Beardmore and Company munitions factory, but also found time to write her first novel, The Hidden Tragedy. In 1918, she stood in Glasgow Bridgeton as an independent candidate at the general election. She was the only woman in Scotland to stand, but did not win her seat.

After the war, Murray wrote a memoir of her mother, Frances Murray a memoir (1920), Scottish Women of Bygone Days (1930), and A Gallery of Scottish Women (1935). I’ll need to grab myself a copy to help with my local herstory! She also became interested in folklore and wrote Scottish Homespun which was illustrated with pictures of dolls dressed in the outfits she was discussing. Murray made many of these outfits. She also campaigned for the creation of a Scottish folk museum.

Murray served on the committee and donated money to the National Trust for Scotland. She never married and died in her family home in Cardross.

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