Nina Welby-Gregory

Emmeline 'Nina' Cust (1867–1955) was an English writer, editor, translator and sculptor. She was a member of The Souls, an upper class circle that challenged the conventions and attitudes of their class in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Personal life 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.