Nina Welby-Gregory

• Birth Name — Emmeline Mary Elizabeth Welby • Born — 5 August 1867 • Birthplace — Denton, Lincolnshire • Died — 29 September 1955 • Father — Sir William Earle Welby-Gregory • Mother — Victoria Stuart-Wortley • Illustration — Nina Cust's memorial to Henry John Cockayne Cust in St Peter and St Paul's Church, Belton • Illustration — Emmeline Mary Elizabeth ('Nina') Cust (née Welby-Gregory) after Violet Manners, Duchess of Rutland lithograph, 1890s • Illustration — An enamelled portrait by Alexander Fisher, 1898

Cust was born at Denton Hall to Victoria, Lady Welby, a philosophical writer and Sir William Earle Welby-Gregory, a politician and landowner. Her maternal grandmother, Lady Emmeline Stuart-Wortley was a renowned Victorian poet and travel writer. In 1893, Cust married another member of The Souls, Henry John Cockayne-Cust known as Harry. She supported her husband in much of his work, including correspondence for the Central Committee for National Patriotic Organisations. Cust was devoted to her husband, despite a reputedly unhappy marriage that lasted until his death in 1917. A detailed look at Nina and Harry, as individuals and as a married couple, can be found in 'Tangled Souls: Love & Scandal among the Victorian Aristocracy' by Jane Dismore (pub. The History Press, 2022). Cust was a direct neighbour of sculptor Jacob Epstein when they both lived at Hyde Park Gate in London.

Cust wrote a biography of her mother, Victoria, Lady Welby's first thirty years, Wanderers: episodes from the travels of Lady Emmeline Stuart-Wortley and her daughter Victoria, 1849-1855. She also published accounts of her grandmother's travels. Cust contributed shorter pieces to contemporary periodicals including the journal of the English Association. Virginia Woolf is known to have reviewed at least one of Cust's published books, probably 'Gentleman Errant'. Cust's translation of 'Semantics; studies in the science of meaning' by Michel Jules Alfred Bréal presented the text's first appearance in English.

Cust may have attended the Académie Julian in Paris, although it is unclear which art forms she trained in. It is also possible that she studied sculpture in London. Cust exhibited her sculpture at the Royal Academy in 1906 showing a bust of her niece and in 1927, part of a model of her husband. She exhibited both in the United Kingdom and abroad, with works shown in Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and Paris. In 1884, Cust was the subject of a portrait bust by Alfred Gilbert. Alexander Fisher produced an enamelled portrait of Cust in 1898.