Victoria, Lady Welby

Victoria, Lady Welby (1837–1912), born Victoria Alexandrina Maria Louisa Stuart-Wortley, was a British philosopher of language, musician, and watercolourist. After a period of travel and service as a maid of honour to Queen Victoria, she married Sir William Earle Welby-Gregory. Following her children's independence, she pursued self-education and became a significant thinker in the philosophy of language. Her early publications focused on theology, but a curiosity about the nature of understanding led her to explore language, rhetoric, and philosophy. She published seminal works such as *What Is Meaning? Studies in the Development of Significance* (1903) and *Significs and Language* (1911). Welby coined the term 'significs' for her theory of meaning, distinguishing between sense, meaning, and significance, and exploring their connection to ethical, aesthetic, and social values. Her triadic thinking structure resonated with that of Charles Sanders Peirce, with whom she engaged in an influential correspondence. She also corresponded with other notable thinkers like C. K. Ogden, William James, and F.C.S. Schiller. Welby's work anticipated contemporary developments in semantics, semiotics, and semiology, and she had a direct influence on the Dutch Significs group, indirectly impacting L. E. J. Brouwer.