The Honourable Mrs Bertie
(1835-1927)
6 February 1862

[This is probably the wife of the Honourable Montagu Peregrine Bertie, younger son of General Alexander Bertie, 9th Earl of Lindsey. Identified as ‘The Honble Mrs Bertie’ in the Silvy daybooks, the sitter had previously sat for Silvy soon after the studio opened (Volume 1, page 6, sitting number 25). A portrait from that earlier sitting appears on page 65 of this section.]

Born in or about 1835, Felicia Elizabeth Welby was the daughter of the Reverend John Earle Welby.  On 30 May 1854 she married the Honourable Montagu Peregrine Bertie (1815-1899), who gained the rank of Captain in the service of the Grenadier Guards. His older brother, the 10th Earl of Lindsey, never married so when he died at the age of 62 in 1877 the Honourable Montague Bertie became the 11th Earl of Lindsey and the Honourable Mrs Bertie became the Countess of Lindsey.

The Dowager Countess of Lindsey died on 16 March 1927 at the age of 93. 

'The death took place at Lindsey House, Woodhall Spa, yesterday, of Felicia, the Dowager Countess of Lindsey, at the age of 93 years. The deceased lady was the widow of the 2nd [sic] Earl of Lindsey, of Uffington House, Stamford, who died in 1899, and she was the daughter of the Rev. John Earle Welby, Hareston, Leicestershire. She had resided at Woodhall Spa for many year and was loved for her kindly nature. Many charitable objects in Woodhall Spa and in various parts of Lindsey had in her a good friend' (Nottingham Journal, 17 March 1927).

She was the sister-in-law of Lady Charlotte Schreiber (née Bertie, previously Guest) and during the 1860s the two women's names frequently appeared together in newspaper reports listing the members of society who had attended particular balls, dinners and soirées. Many of these lists also included names of her Welby relations.