Editing Margaret Murray (section)

===Youth: 1863–1893===
Margaret Murray was born on 13 July 1863 in [[Kolkata|Calcutta]], then a major military city and the capital of [[British Raj|British India]].{{sfnm|1a1=Williams|1y=1961|1p=433|2a1=Drower|2y=2004|2p=110|3a1=Sheppard|3y=2013|3p=2}} She lived in the city with her parents James and Margaret Murray, an older sister named Mary, and her paternal grandmother and great-grandmother.{{sfn|Sheppard|2013|p=2}} James Murray, born in India of Anglo-Irish descent, was a businessman and manager of the [[Serampore]] paper mills who was thrice elected President of the Calcutta Chamber of Commerce.{{sfnm|1a1=Drower|1y=2004|1p=110|2a1=Sheppard|2y=2013|2p=6}} Margaret (née Carr) had moved to India from Britain in 1857 to work as a [[missionary]], preaching [[Christianity]] and educating Indian women. She continued with this work after marrying James and giving birth to her two daughters.{{sfnm|1a1=Drower|1y=2004|1p=110|2a1=Sheppard|2y=2013|2pp=8–10}}

Although most of their lives were spent in the European area of Calcutta, which was walled off from the Indian sectors of the city, Murray encountered members of Indian society through her family's employment of ten Indian servants and through childhood holidays to [[Mussoorie]].{{sfn|Sheppard|2013|pp=3–4, 13}} The historian [[Amara Thornton]] has suggested that Murray's Indian childhood exerted an influence over her throughout her life, expressing the view that Murray could be seen as having a hybrid transnational identity that was both British and Indian.{{sfn|Thornton|2014|p=5}} During her childhood, Murray received no formal education, and in later life expressed pride that she had never had to sit an exam before entering university.{{sfnm|1a1=Williams|1y=1961|1p=434|2a1=Oates|2a2=Wood|2y=1998|2p=9}} 

In 1870, Margaret and her sister Mary were sent to Britain, moving in with their uncle John, a vicar, and his wife Harriet at their home in [[Lambourn]], Berkshire. Although John provided them with a strongly Christian education and a belief in [[Misogyny|the inferiority of women]], both of which she would reject, he awakened Murray's interest in archaeology through taking her to see local monuments.{{sfnm|1a1=Drower|1y=2004|1p=110|2a1=Sheppard|2y=2013|2pp=16–20}} In 1873, the girls' mother arrived in Europe and took them with her to [[Bonn]] in Germany, where they both became fluent in [[German language|German]].{{sfnm|1a1=Drower|1y=2004|1p=110|2a1=Sheppard|2y=2013|2p=21}} In 1875 they returned to Calcutta, staying there until 1877.{{sfn|Sheppard|2013|p=21}} They then moved with their parents back to England, where they settled in [[Sydenham, London]]. There, they spent much time visiting [[The Crystal Palace]], while their father worked at his firm's London office.{{sfnm|1a1=Drower|1y=2004|1p=110|2a1=Sheppard|2y=2013|2pp=21–22}} 

In 1880, they returned to Calcutta, where Margaret remained for the next seven years. She became a nurse at the Calcutta General Hospital, which was run by the Sisters of the Anglican Sisterhood of Clower, and there was involved with the hospital's attempts to deal with a [[1881–96 cholera pandemic|cholera outbreak]].{{sfnm|1a1=Drower|1y=2004|1pp=110–111|2a1=Sheppard|2y=2013|2pp=22–24}} In 1881, at age 18, Margaret heard about [[James Murray (lexicographer)|James Murray]] (no relation) and his "general appeal to English speakers around the world to read their local books and send him words and quotations" for entry into the [[Oxford English Dictionary|OED]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Ogilvie|first=Sarah|title=The Dictionary People: The unsung heroes who created the Oxford English Dictionary|publisher=Vantage|date=2024}}</ref> She had a routine of taking a book onto the roof in the cool early-morning air. She began with [[William L'Isle]]'s edition of Aelfric's ''Saxon Treatise concerning the Old and New Testament'', from which she submitted 300 entries to Murray. She continued as a volunteer until 1888, submitting a total of 5,000 entries.

In 1887, she returned to England, moving to [[Rugby, Warwickshire]], where her uncle John, now widowed, had moved. She took up employment as a social worker dealing with local underprivileged people.{{sfnm|1a1=Drower|1y=2004|1p=111|2a1=Sheppard|2y=2013|2pp=24–25}} When her father retired to England, she moved into his house in [[Bushey|Bushey Heath]], Hertfordshire, living with him until his death in 1891.{{sfn|Sheppard|2013|p=25}} In 1893 she travelled to [[Chennai|Madras]], Tamil Nadu, where her sister had moved to with her new husband.{{sfnm|1a1=Drower|1y=2004|1p=111|2a1=Sheppard|2y=2013|2p=26}}

Later in 1893, Murray received her first introduction to Egyptology when her elder sister, Mary, alerted her to an advertisement in ''[[The Times]]'' for classes in Egyptian hieroglyphs taught by [[Flinders Petrie]], Murray's future mentor. Reflecting upon this in her autobiography, Murray notes it was her sister's insistence on attending these classes, largely spurred on by her own inability to do so, which set her down the path of her Egyptological career.<ref name=":0" />