Geraldine Harmsworth

Geraldine Mary Maffett was born in Dublin on 24 December 1838. Her parents were William and Margaret Maffett (née Finlayson). She had 7 siblings and 3 half siblings from her father's first marriage to Margaret Crooks. Two of her brothers went on to join the British Army. Her father was a land agent, and the family lived at 27 Pembroke Place (later Pembroke Road), Dublin. At a young age, Harmsworth was a talented singer and piano player, who apparently could memorise the operas she heard performed in Dublin. She was educated by German and French governesses. The family later moved to a house named St Helena, Finglas. It was here that Harmsworth met her future husband, Alfred Harmsworth, in 1862. Her father approved of the match, and she decided that her new husband would become a barrister. They married on 22 September 1864 in St Stephen's Church, Dublin. ==Family==

By the time of their marriage, Alfred was a student of the Middle Temple and was studying to take the Irish bar. Their first two children were born in Dublin. Harmsworth decided that the family should move to London, and this was hastened by the rumour that her husband was potentially being targeted by the Fenians. They first lived with relatives in Dublin, Armagh and Belfast, leaving in March 1867 for London. Her husband was a heavy drinker, but was called to the English and Irish bars, and founded the Sylvan Debating Club. His alcoholism left the growing family in straitened circumstances, with the family moving into a series of cheaper and cheaper houses in north London. Harmsworth was untrained as a housewife, and struggled to maintain their homes. Their children wore secondhand clothes, she wrapped them in newspapers at night to keep them warm, and when infants, the children would sleep in a drawer. She occasionally escaped the home to participate in public readings of literature. • Alfred Charles William (1865–1922) • Geraldine Adelaide Hamilton (1866–1945) mother of Cecil Harmsworth King, wife of Sir Lucas White King • Harold Sidney (1868–1940) • Cecil Bisshopp (1869–1948) • Robert Leicester (1870–1937) • Hildebrand Aubrey (1872–1929) • Violet Grace (1873–1961) • Charles Harmondsworth (1874–1942) • William Albert St John (1876–1933) • Maud Sarah (1877–1878) • Christabel Rose (1880–1967), mother of Christabel Bielenberg • Vyvyan George (1881–1957) • Muriel (1882–1882) • Harry Stanley Giffard (1885–1887) The Park was opened in 1934. ==References==