Editing Major Barbara (section)

==Background==
Lady Britomart Undershaft was modelled on [[Rosalind Howard, Countess of Carlisle]], the mother-in-law of [[Gilbert Murray]], who with his wife Lady Mary served as inspiration for Adolphus Cusins and Barbara Undershaft.<ref name="Albert" /><ref>{{cite journal | url=http://muse.jhu.edu/article/31299 | last=Albert | first=Sidney P. | title=From Murray's Mother-in-Law to ''Major Barbara'': The Outside Story | journal=Shaw | volume=22 | pages=19–65 |year=2001 | doi=10.1353/shaw.2002.0002 | s2cid=159544781 | access-date=24 November 2016| url-access=subscription}}</ref>

Andrew Undershaft was loosely inspired by a number of figures, including the arms dealer [[Basil Zaharoff]], and German armaments family [[Krupp]]. Undershaft's unscrupulous sale of weapons to any and all bidders, as well as his government influence and more pertinently his company's method of succession (to a foundling rather than a son), tie him especially to [[Krupp]] steel. [[Friedrich Alfred Krupp]] died by suicide in 1902 following publication of claims he was a homosexual. His two daughters were his heirs. Undershaft shares a name with a [[Church of England]] church in the [[City of London]] named [[St Andrew Undershaft]]; given the district's longstanding status as the financial centre of London, the association underscores the play's thematic emphasis on the interpenetration of religion and economics, of faith and capital.