Editing Gilbert Murray (section)

=== Activist ===
[[File:League of Nations Commission 075.tif|thumb|upright=1.4|[[International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation]] of the [[League of Nations]] in 1939, chaired by Murray (at the central table)]]
As Regius Professor and literary figure, he had a platform to promote his views, which were many-sided but [[Whigs (British political party)|Whig]]-liberal.<ref>"Robert L. Fowler, who has read and reflected on a huge amount of Murray's work, places him in context: a Liberal concerned with social organization, a League of Nations supporter, a vegetarian offended by the slaughter of the [[Gadarene swine]], decent and generous, deeply influenced by the historicism of [[Wilamowitz-Moellendorff]]. Murray wrote ''Five Stages of Greek Religion'' in part to 'counteract Jane Harrison's exaltation of the chthonic spirits by a vigorous defence of the Olympian deities', who for Murray characterized the Greek mind during the period of 'true Hellenism' ending with the end of the Peloponnesian War. Murray's gods were morally, intellectually, and politically good, opposing the 'megalomania and blood-lust' of earlier Greek religion and favoring the city-state." – from {{cite journal|author=Daniel P. Tompkins|url=http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/1992/03.01.03.html|url-status=dead|title=William M. Calder III (ed.), The Cambridge Ritualists Reconsidered. Illinois Classical Studies|type=review|journal=Bryn Mawr Classical Review|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010501214846/http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/1992/03.01.03.html|archive-date=1 May 2001}}. Wiliamowitz and Murray had been in touch as correspondents since the mid-1890s {{harv|Wilson1987|p=55}}.</ref> In 1912 he wrote an introduction to ''The Great Analysis: A Plea for a Rational World-Order'', by his friend William Archer.<ref>It proposed ''the founding of an International College of Systematic Sociology. Composed of scholars and politicians from all nations, the College would monitor and interpret global affairs, its university anticipating the crises to be solved by its parliamentarians''. Archer solicited the introduction from Murray for this utopian scheme, and then had it published anonymously as far as identifying himself as author. [[Andrew Carnegie]] was approached for funding, without result. (Peter Whitebrook (1993) ''William Archer: A Biography''. p. 307.)</ref>

During [[World War I]] he became a pamphleteer, putting a reasoned war case. He also defended [[C. K. Ogden]] against criticism,<ref>{{harvnb|Wilson1987|p=236}}; this was in March 1917</ref> and took a public interest in [[conscientious objection]].<ref>In the case of the Quaker [[Stephen Hobhouse]], Murray wrote an introduction to a pamphlet ''I appeal unto Caesar: the case of the conscientious objector'' by his mother Margaret. His father, [[Henry Hobhouse (East Somerset MP)|Henry Hobhouse]], was a Liberal MP from 1885 to 1906, and although a 'country squire' (''Concise Dictionary of National Biography'') was a Privy Councillor; and brother to [[L. T. Hobhouse]], an old friend of Murray's. Murray was incensed at the treatment meted out to Stephen Hobhouse, who had been rejected as not a genuine objector of conscience ([http://www.theosophical.ca/TheSoulAs.htm ''The Soul as It is and How to Deal with It'', 1918 paper] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070103235320/http://www.theosophical.ca/TheSoulAs.htm |date=3 January 2007 }}), and further wrote an introduction to Hobhouse's post-war book on prisons.</ref><ref>He intervened directly in the case of [[Raymond Postgate]] {{harv|Wilson|1987|p=237}}. In a scare about the possible application of [[martial law]] to objectors, he contacted [[Edward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby|Lord Derby]], the Secretary of War, and [[H. H. Asquith]] the Prime Minister face-to-face {{harv|Wilson|1987|p=239}}.</ref> Murray never took a pacifist line himself, broke an old friendship with [[Bertrand Russell]] early in the war,<ref>Murray was active in helping Russell when the latter was imprisoned; see {{harvnb|West|1984|p=145}} on pacifism, {{harvnb|Wilson|1987|p=241}} on aid to Russell. Murray, close to [[H. H. Asquith]], had no time for [[David Lloyd George]] who displaced him as prime minister.</ref> and supported British intervention in the [[Suez Crisis]].<ref name="eayrs1964">{{cite book | title=The Commonwealth and Suez: A Documentary Survey | publisher=Oxford University Press |last=Eayrs|first=James|author-link=James Eayrs| year=1964 | pages=202–203 }}</ref>

He was also involved as an internationalist in the [[League of Nations]]. He was a vice-president of the [[League of Nations Society]] from 1916,<ref name="Wilson247">{{harvnb|Wilson|1987|p=247}}</ref> and in 1917 wrote influential articles in ''[[The Daily News (UK)|The Daily News]]''.{{sfn|Wilson|1987|p=248}} At the invitation of [[Jan Smuts]] he acted in 1921/2 as a League delegate for South Africa.{{sfn|Wilson|1987|p=249}}<ref>Murray's League activities extended to post-WWI intellectual revival, where he spoke up for funding for Germany (then not a League member); see [[E. M. Forster]]'s life of Murray's deputy [[Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson]].</ref> He was an influential member of the [[International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation]] of the League from 1922 to 1939,<ref>{{cite book |last=Grandjean |first=Martin |date=2018 |title=Les réseaux de la coopération intellectuelle. La Société des Nations comme actrice des échanges scientifiques et culturels dans l'entre-deux-guerres |trans-title=The Networks of Intellectual Cooperation. The League of Nations as an Actor of the Scientific and Cultural Exchanges in the Inter-War Period |url=https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01853903/document |language=fr |location=Lausanne |publisher=Université de Lausanne}}</ref> being its president from 1928 to 1939.

Later he was a major influence in the setting-up of [[Oxfam]]<ref>Oxfam was not initially known by that name at that point, post-WWII. "A leading figure in this campaign was Professor Gilbert Murray (1866–1957). ... He was a founder of the League of Nations Union, a citizen support group for international peace. As famine in Greece became severe in the autumn of 1941 the League of Nations Union appointed a 'Committee on Starvation in Occupied Countries'. In October 1941 Murray and [[Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood|Lord Robert Cecil]], Viscount Chelwood (1864–1958), joint presidents, sought a meeting with the Ministry of Economic Warfare to establish whether anything more could be done to relieve starvation in occupied countries. ... Murray remained in Oxford after his retirement and was closely associated with the development of Oxfam as a founder and trustee. After the war he was joint president, 1945–1947 and 1949–1957, and sole president, 1947–1949, of the United Nations Association." [https://www.oxfam.org.ni/about_us/history/oxfamorigins.rtf "About Us – History"], Oxfam {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040717230631/http://www.oxfam.org.ni/about_us/history/oxfamorigins.rtf |date=17 July 2004 }}</ref><ref>A Gilbert Murray Memorial Lecture for Oxfam has been given from 1959, endowed after his death. Speakers have included: [[Graça Machel]] (2005); [[Amartya Sen]] (2002); [[Gordon Brown]] (2000); Juan Sonavía (1996); [[Philippa Foot]] (1992); [[Desmond Tutu]] (1990); [[Crispin Tickell]] (1989); [[Smangaliso Mkhatshwa]] (1985); [[Prince Sadruddin]] (1983); [[David Owen]] (1978); [[August Lindt]] (1959); and by [[John Kenneth Galbraith]], [[Conor Cruise O'Brien]].</ref> and of the Students' International Union (later the [[Institute of World Affairs]]).