Sister Georgina Mary,
formerly Miss Georgina Hoare
(1827-1905)

[The portrait does not appear in any of the twelve volumes of the Silvy daybooks in the archives of the National Portrait Gallery in London. The sitting probably took place between July 1863 and June 1864, the period covered by the missing volume of the daybooks.]

The sitter had previous sat for Silvy on 1 March 1862, before she had taken the veil. On that occasion she was identified as Miss Georgina Hoare (Volume 6, page 60, sitting number 7110).

Born on 24 February 1827, Georgina Sophia Hoare was the daughter of Henry Charles Hoare. She appears on the 1851 census living with her family at Wavendon House in Buckinghamshire. Her father gave 'Magistrate [and] Farmer [of] 500 acres' as his profession. 

According to Saint Alban the Martyr, Holborn: A History of Fifty Years (published in London in 1913) by the Right Honourable George W. E. Russell, she took her vows on 30 November 1865, so presumably she was still a novice when this portrait was taken. The same source quotes the Reverend Alexander Mackonochie's annual address to his parish for 1882. 'In the course of the Address, he paid the following tribute to a very remarkable woman who had been, for thirteen years, head of the band of Sisters working in the Parish: "One prominent figure in all that was good and active in the Parish disappears from the midst of us this year — I mean Sister Georgina Mary. Her capabilities were exceptional. Her former life and associates, as well as divinely-given gifts, adapted her most admirably, not only for women's work of ordinary or extraordinary kinds, but to carry all a woman's tact and perseverance into work which belonged rather to men, if not such as few men would care to attempt. She has beeen removed from us by the vote of her Community, calling her to a position more important in itself, though far less attractive to her than what she was doing here. We thank God that she has been sent to us for a time — the time of great difficulty — and pray for his His blessing upon her wherever she may be called to serve Him."' The header at the top of the page reads: 'Sister Georgy.'

At time of the 1891 census, she was 'Sister Superior' at the Mission House in Smith Square, Westminster (not far from the Palace of Westminster). She gave 'Sister of Mercy' as her profession. 

She died, aged 78, on 23 October 1905 at 'the House of Mercy' in Clewer in the Borough of Windsor. She left an estate valued at £12,761. 

[From an album compiled by Lady Augusta Frances Hoare, wife of Sir Henry Ainslie Hoare, 5th Baronet. This is the second copy of this particular portrait that has come my way. The other one was also from an album compiled by a member of the Hoare family.]