Albinia Wherry

Albinia Lucy Wherry (18 October 1857 – 4 March 1929), nee Cust, was a British nurse and author, known for her works on biography, art, and folklore. Early life She was the oldest daughter of Robert Needham Cust and his wife Maria Hobart, and was born at Langdown House, Hampshire, the Hobart family home from 1849. Two months later her barrister father set off for British India, then torn by rebellion, where he would make a reputation as a colonial administrator and linguist. She had two sisters and two brothers; her mother died in 1864 a week after giving birth to a daughter. Her father returned from India; when back there in a senior administrative position, he took another wife, Emma Carlyon, who died in childbirth in 1867. He left India, and married again in 1868. He was survived by three of his children: Albinia (Alba); Robert Henry Hobart Cust (1861–1940), known as Robin; and the geographer Maria Eleanor Vere Cust FRGS. Family matters Wherry's relationship with her father was intense, difficult and marred by grudges held. There was a serious break after her marriage. According to his biographer Peter Penner: Her illness in infancy had spoiled his camp life and taken Maria back to England (away from him) in 1860. Now, in her adolescence, she threatened to spoil his peace of mind and to breach his walled garden. Influenced by her Hobart and Milner tutelage, as far as her father was concerned, she had behaved sullenly to him in 1866. Alba on the other hand, wrote in 1881 that at nine years of age (1866) she was taken out of the "only home I ever knew" [...]