Person    | Female  Born 6/1/1894  Died 22/5/1971

Stella, Lady Reading

Categories: Philanthropy

Countries: India, Turkey, USA

Philanthropist. Born Stella Charnaud in Constantinople (now Istanbul), Turkey. She is best remembered as the founder of the Women's Voluntary Services (now known as the Royal Voluntary Service). In 1925, she joined the staff of Viceroy Rufus Isaacs, (1st Earl of Reading), in Delhi, and eventually married him. After his death, she moved to America, becoming a close friend of Eleanor Roosevelt. In 1958 she was created a life peer in her own right, becoming Baroness Swanborough, and in 1958, the year that they were first allowed, was the second woman to take her seat in the House of Lords. Died at her home 16 Lord North Street, London.

Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Stella, Lady Reading

Commemorated ati

Stella, Lady Reading

Stella Lady Reading, 1894 - 1971, Founder of the Women's Voluntary Services, ...

Read More

Other Subjects

Joseph and Mary Knight

Joseph and Mary Knight

From Diocese of Westminster: After 1840 "They planned a Catholic foundation in the parish and purchased, for £5,000, two and a half acres of land which had formerly been the Wellington Cricket Grou...

Group, Philanthropy

1 memorial
Robert Bell

Robert Bell

Elizabethan seafarer. With Peter Hill he co-founded the St Mary Rotherhithe Free School, to educate the sons of local seafarers. In the nearby church of St Mary the Virgin there is a brass plate co...

Person, Education, Philanthropy, Transport

1 memorial
Richard Carr-Gomm

Richard Carr-Gomm

Army officer and charity founder. Richard Culling Carr-Gomm was born on 2 February 1922 at Mancetter Lodge, Mancetter, near Atherstone, Warwickshire. He was the son of Mark Culling Carr-Gomm (1883...

Person, Armed Forces, Philanthropy, Germany

1 memorial
Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal, Donald Smith

Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal, Donald Smith

Born Scotland.   Emigrated to Canada in 1838 to work with the Hudson's Bay Company.  He worked his way up the company and entered politics, made his fortune and was knighted in 1886.  Died  28 Gros...

Person, Commerce, Philanthropy, Politics & Administration, Canada

1 memorial
Samuel Gurney Snr

Samuel Gurney Snr

Banker and philanthropist. Born near Norwich. Father of Samuel and of Catherine who married Edward, the son of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton. Died Paris, returning, ill, from a stay in Nice.

Person, Philanthropy, France

1 memorial

Previously viewed

World War 1

World War 1

We'd always assumed that this war was known as the Great War until WW2 came along at which point it was renamed as World War One or the First World War. But the term was first used in print in 1920...

Event, Armed Forces, Tragedy

402 memorials
Graham Greene

Graham Greene

Author. Born Henry Graham Greene at St John's, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire. After his marriage, he converted to Roman Catholicism, which became a theme in a number of his novels. During the second w...

Person, Espionage, Literature, Switzerland

2 memorials
Bethnal Green and East London Housing Association / Gateway

Bethnal Green and East London Housing Association / Gateway

From British History on-line: "The Bethnal Green and East London Housing Association was formed in 1926 by an Industrial Housing Fellowship Group. It was supported by the Poplar Ruridecanal {sic} C...

Group, Property, Social Welfare

3 memorials
Tower Hamlets Council

Tower Hamlets Council

The name was originally applied to the Tower division of the county of Middlesex. This division was a liberty, i.e. it was an autonomous area under the jurisdiction of the Constable of the Tower of...

Group, Politics & Administration

54 memorials
Bethlehem Hospital 1&2

Bethlehem Hospital 1&2

A priory for the Order of the Star of Bethlehem, built in 1247 on Bishopsgate at Liverpool Street, started admitting mental patients in 1357. This was probably the world's first institution to spec...

Building, Medicine

4 memorials