Stella Isaacs, Marchioness of Reading

The Most Honourable The Marchioness of Reading GBE
Stella Isaacs, Marchioness of Reading in a WVS wartime poster
Chair of the Women's Voluntary Service
Personal details
Born	Grace Stella Charnaud 6 January 1894
Died	22 May 1971 (aged 77)
Spouse(s)	Rufus Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading

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 US Ambassador, 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 exponenent 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 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".

Stella Charnaud was born on 6 January 1894 in Constantinople (now Istanbul). Her father Charles Charnaud was a director of the tobacco monopoly of the Ottoman Empire. Her mother Milbah Johnson was from Lincolnshire and was Charnaud's second wife. The family lived on the Asian side of the Bosphorus at Moda.

Due to poor health, much of Stella Charnaud's education was via private tutors. A 1963 profile provided more background on her childhood. She was the fifth of nine Charnaud children – four brothers and four sisters – and was precisely in the middle. Spinal troubles confined her to bed for "months and years", but she would later speak of its advantages – not least that she became a listening post for her siblings and half siblings. She said: "it was like being the spider in the middle of a large web". The Observer suggested it had taught her the art of diplomacy.