Sarah McMurray

Sarah Ann McMurray (née Silcock, 26 August 1848 – 14 September 1943) was a New Zealand woodcarver and craftswoman.

Biography

McMurray was born in Nelson, New Zealand, on 26 August 1848, the daughter of Susannah Silcock (née Flower) and Captain Simon Bonnet Silcock. McMurray was the third of 14 children. Sarah Page, a prohibitionist, was McMurray's cousin through her mother's sister, Rhoda Saunders (née Flower), who married politician Alfred Saunders.

She married Robert McMurray on 12 September 1871. They had six children. They lived for some time in dense forest in the Inangahua Valley on the West Coast of the South Island. In the 1880s they moved to a farm in Awahuri in the North Island. Later moving again to Wanganui.

She took up relief carving as a hobby and despite being over 50 years old she enrolled in a local technical college to develop her wood carving skills. She was prolific and elaborately carved most of the furnishings in her house.

She was among the signatories to New Zealand's 1893 women's suffrage petition. In 1914 her and husband Robert McMurray moved to Palmerston North. She continued her woodcarving in Palmerston North working in the garden shed. She worked mainly in kauri. She also handmade toys for her children and grandchildren one of which is in the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

Death

McMurray died at her home on Ada Street in Palmerston North on 14 September 1943, aged 95. She is buried at Terrace End Cemetery next to her husband, who died in 1927.