Geraldine Mary Maffett

Geraldine Mary Harmsworth (née Maffett; 24 December 1838 – 29 August 1925) was an Irish matriarch.

Early life 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. 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.