Biography contributed by Isaac du Toit (great-great-great-grandson)
Sarah Ann McMurray (née Silcock) was a talented woodcarver and craftswoman.
She was born on the 26 August 1848 in Nelson. Her parents were Susannah (nee Flower) and Captain Simon Bonnet Silcock. She married Robert McMurray and they had six children.
She lived in Whanganui where she embellished her home with elaborately carved mantelpieces and architraves.
In 1914 she and her husband retired to Palmerston North where she carved almost every piece of furniture in their house.
McMurray died in Palmerston North on the 14 September 1943 aged 95 and is buried at Terrace End Cemetery, Palmerston North.
Sources
The Book of New Zealand women – Ko kui ma te kaupapa / edited by Charlotte Macdonald, Merimeri Penfold and Bridget Williams. Wellington, Bridget Williams Books, 1991, Pages 392-394
Manawatu Times, Volume 65, Issue 201, 26 August 1940, Page 5 https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MT19400826.2.33.4
Manawatu Times, Volume 60, Issue 218, 16 September 1935, Page 6 https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MT19350916.2.39
Images
Carved wooden chair by Sarah Ann McMurray (photograph courtesy Isaac du Toit)
Sarah Ann McMurray seated next to one of her wood carvings. (photograph courtesy Isaac du Toit)