The Most Honourable The Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava VA CI DBE |
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![]() The Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava in 1891
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Personal details | |
Born |
5 February 1843 – 25 October 1936 |
5 February 1843
Died | 5 February 1936 | (aged 93)
Resting place | Clandeboye |
Spouse(s) | Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava |
Children |
Lady Helen Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood
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Occupation | writer, health care advocate |
Hariot Georgina Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava VA CI DBE (5 February 1843 – 25 October 1936) was a British peeress, known for her success in the role of "diplomatic wife," and for leading an initiative to improve medical care for women in British India.
Born Hariot Georgina Rowan-Hamilton, she was the eldest of the seven children of Archibald Hamilton-Rowan of Killyleagh Castle (now Northern Ireland). On 23 October 1862, she married her distant cousin, the 5th Baron Dufferin and Claneboye at Killyleagh Castle; they later had three daughters and six sons.
Her husband was created Earl of Dufferin in 1871. A year later, she and their children travelled with him to Canada upon his appointment as Governor General, where her assistance in turning Rideau Hall into a centre of social activity included literary readings and presentation of plays in which she herself sometimes performed. Lady Dufferin was one of the most popular of the governor-generals' wives, and was starting to build up her reputation as "the most effective diplomatic wife of her generation". Next she joined him as he served as ambassador to Russia from 1879–81, and to the Ottoman Empire from 1881–84, where she received the Grand Crescent of the Turkish Order of the Chefakat in 1883, followed by the Persian Order of the Sun in 1887. In both St. Petersburg and Constantinople, as at all their embassies, the couple were known for their hospitality.