Bloomfield, Georgiana, Lady 1822-1905, author, born on 13 April 1822 at 51 Portland Place, London, was sixteenth and youngest child of Thomas Henry Liddell, first Baron Ravensworth, by his wife Marion Susannah, daughter of John Simpson of Bradley Hall, co. Durham. She was educated at home, and in December 1841 became maid of honour to Queen Victoria, resigning in July 1845. On 4 Sept. 1845, at Lanesley church, co. Durham, she married John Arthur Douglas, second Baron Bloomfield [qv.], and accompanied her husband on his diplomatic missions, going at first to St. Petersburg, thence to Berlin (1851-60), and to Vienna (1861-71). There were no children of the marriage, and after her husband's death at his residence, Newport, co. Tipperary, in 1879, Lady Bloomfield settled at Shrivenham, in Berkshire, to be near her sister, Jane Elizabeth, widow of the sixth Viscount Barrington. When Lady Barrington died on 22 March 1883, Lady Bloomfield removed to Bramfield House, about two miles from Hertford. Here she exercised much hospitality and interested herself in the affairs of the village.
     In 1883 she published Reminiscences of Court and Diplomatic Life (2 vols.), a constant ripple of interesting anecdote, as Augustus J. C. Hare described Lady Bloomfield's conversation (cf. Story of My Life, 1900, vol. vi.). She edited in 1884 a Memoir of Benjamin, Lord Bloomfield [qv.], her father-in-law, in 2 volumes. Her last work, Gleanings of a Long Life (1902), collected extracts from her favourite books.
     Lady Bloomfield, a grand dame of an old school, kept up her friendship with Queen Victoria and her family, and delighted in social intercourse with all classes. While deeply religious on old, low church lines, she was tolerant and charitable. She founded in 1874 the Trained Nurses' Annuity Fund, and built and endowed almshouses on her husband's estate near Newport, co. Tipperary. She sketched well in water-colours, and her sketches formed a sort of diary of her journeys. She was an accomplished musician, playing the organ; was a good billiard player, and an excellent gardener.
     She died, after a long illness, at Bramfield House on 21 May 1905, and was buried in the family mausoleum beside her husband in the churchyard of Borrisnafarney, King's County, Ireland.

Sources:
     Lady Bloomfield's Reminiscences of Court and Diplomatic Life, 1883
     The Times, 23 May 1905
     Allibone, Dict. of Eng. Lit., Suppl. 1
     Burke's Peerage, 1907
     private information.

Contributor: E. L. [Elizabeth Lee]

Published: 1912