Countess of Dudley and her children

A cabinet card portrait of society beauty Georgina, Countess of Dudley. She is seen here with her three eldest sons and her only daughter, Lady Edith Ward, born in 1872.

Born Georgina Elisabeth Moncreiffe in 1846, she was the daughter of Sir Thomas Moncreiffe, 7th Bt., and Lady Louisa Hay-Drummond. On 21 November 1865 she became the second wife of William Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley. Their marriage produced six sons and one daughter.

During the Boer War and World War I, Lady Dudley served with the British Red Cross Society. In late 1900, she was involved in running a Mayfair nursing home for disabled officers under the auspices of the Red Cross.

She died on 2 February 1929, aged 82, at Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park.

The tall boy on the left in this portrait is presumably William Humble Ward (1867-1932), from 1885 the 2nd Earl of Dudley and between 1908 and 1911 the Governor-General of Australia.

Photographed by James Russell and Sons of London and Chichester.