The eldest daughter of a judge, her lack of wealth and social connections earned the disapproval of the 2nd Marquess of Salisbury; despite this, Alderson married his son Robert in 1857.

[5][6] On 11 July 1857, Georgina Alderson married Lord Robert Cecil, a younger son of James Gascoyne-Cecil, 2nd Marquess of Salisbury.

[4] She was also nearly thirty-years old, two years older than his son, and Lord Salisbury feared her ability to produce an heir.

[9] This period did not lead to a dissolution of the relationship; instead, Lord Robert wrote to his father at the end of the break and said he was engaged to Georgina.

[9][12][13] In his entry for her husband in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Paul Smith describes Georgina as "a buoyant and forceful woman" who "share[d] his intellectual interests and encourage[d] and facilitate[d] his career".

His wife thus took a prominent role during parties and gatherings, regularly hosting national and international political figures in London and at Hatfield House.

She was a leading member of the Primrose League, known for being the first British political group to give women a prominent role.

[22] After falling ill in 1898, Lady Salisbury journeyed to their villa in Beaulieu-sur-Mer near Nice, France, hoping this would improve her health.

[23] After her death, The Daily Telegraph wrote: "Without exactly assuming the functions of a leader of society, Lady Salisbury was in all the later years of her life essentially grande dame, and discharged duties, social, political, and personal, which were of the highest moment and utility.