Gilbert Murray was the son of pastoralist and politician Sir Terence Aubrey Murray and his second wife Agnes Edwards. He was educated in Australia at Moss Vale and Mittagong before studying at Oxford where he was later appointed Regius Professor of Greek. Murray was well known for his verse translation of Greek plays including some by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes.
He was foundation chairman of the League of Nations Union 1923-38 and President of the United Nations. Though he left Australia in 1877, his 'Australian childhood shaped his emotions, fired his indignation about life, [and] remained an affectionate memory and a yardstick for his achievement' (Francis West Gilbert Murray, A Life (1984)). He returned to Australia briefly in 1892.