Stella Isaacs, Marchioness of Reading

The Most Honourable The Marchioness of Reading GBE
Lady Reading (left), c. 1935
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
In office 22 September 1958 – 22 May 1971 Life Peerage
Personal details
Born	Grace Stella Charnaud 6 January 1894
Died	22 May 1971 (aged 77)
Spouse	Rufus Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading ​ ​ (m. 1931; died 1935)​

Stella Isaacs, Marchioness of Reading, Baroness Swanborough, GBE (6 January 1894 – 22 May 1971), née Stella Charnaud, was an English philanthropist who is best remembered as the founder and chairman of the Women's Voluntary Service (WVS), now known as Royal Voluntary Service.

As Lady Reading, she was highly active in promoting Anglo-American relations, not only as the wife of a former British Ambassador to the US, but also in her peacetime role helping to rebuild the British economy and find stimulating employment for women – both voluntary and paid. In addition to the WVS, she also established Women's Home Industries, a highly successful exponent of British craft and cultural traditions in clothing and textiles, and also a prolific exporter to the United States and Canada.

She served on boards of various cultural bodies, including the BBC Advisory Board and Glyndebourne, and was a keen early supporter of the University of Sussex. In 1958, she became the first woman to take a seat in the House of Lords in her own right. A 1963 profile in The Observer said: "the W.V.S. has brought out in her the latent political talent and the strength of character that once induced someone to say of her that had she been a man she would have become Prime Minister".^[1]