Portrait of Elisabeth Murdoch (philanthropist)

Birthday profile

Elisabeth Murdoch (philanthropist)

Elisabeth Murdoch, Australian philanthropist (died 2012)

Born
February 8, 1909
Died
December 5, 2012
Zodiac sign
Aquarius
Birth year
1909

About Elisabeth Murdoch (philanthropist)

Dame Elisabeth Joy Murdoch, Lady Murdoch (née Greene; 8 February 1909 – 5 December 2012), also known as Elisabeth, Lady Murdoch, was an Australian philanthropist and matriarch of the Murdoch family. She was the wife of Australian newspaper publisher Sir Keith Murdoch and the mother of international media proprietor Rupert Murdoch. She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1963 for her charity work in Australia and overseas. == Early life and education == Elisabeth Joy Greene was born in Melbourne on 8 February 1909. She was the youngest of three daughters born to Marie Grace de Lancey (née Forth) and Rupert Greene. Her grandfather, William Henry Greene, was an Irish railway engineer (later one of the three Commissioners of Victorian Railways) who emigrated to Australia and married Fanny, the fourth of the 10 daughters of George Govett. Her mother's ancestors were Scottish and English; one of her maternal great-grandfathers, Frederick Forth, was a lieutenant governor in the West Indies. Elisabeth was educated at St Catherine's School in Toorak, and at Clyde School in Woodend. == Personal life and death == She married Keith Murdoch, 23 years her senior, in 1928, and inherited the bulk of his fortune when he died in 1952. Apart from Rupert, her other children are Janet Calvert-Jones AO (born 1939), Anne Kantor AO (1937–2022), and Helen Handbury AO (1929–2004).

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Career and life highlights

The world when Elisabeth Murdoch (philanthropist) was born

Elisabeth Murdoch (philanthropist) was born in 1909. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1909

  • Best-selling book"The Inner Shrine" – Basil King

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentHonus Wagner leads Pittsburgh Pirates to World Series victory
  • Top headlineRobert Peary claims to reach the North Pole
  • Technology milestoneBakelite (first fully synthetic plastic) invented
  • Notable inventionBakelite plastic
  • World population~1.69B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderWilliam Howard Taft
  • U.S. population88.8M

1909 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Elisabeth Murdoch (philanthropist)'s birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19092026
Population88.8M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Library of Congress, VIAF, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.