Cynthia Stockley

Cynthia Stockley (7 July 1873 - 15 January 1936) was a best-selling novelist in Britain, America, and Australia known for her romance novels usually set in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South Africa.

Cynthia Stockley
BornLilian Julian Webb
(1873-07-07)7 July 1873
Bloemfontein South Africa
Died15 January 1936(1936-01-15) (aged 62)
London England
OccupationWriter
EducationSt. Michael's School, Bloemfontein
Notable works
  • Poppy the Story of a South African Girl
  • Ponjola
Spouse
  • Philip Stockley
  • Joesph Byrne
  • Harold Pelham Browne
Children
  • Dorothy
  • Patrick

Biography

Stockley was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa. [1] [2] Her mother, Mary Ann Webb (Corbett), emigrated from County Clare in Ireland at the age of 18, in 1859, [3] whilst her father, Abel Arthur Webb, arrived from Northamptonshire, England, in 1861, at the age of 23. [4]

Her mother died when Cynthia was two. Her father subsequently remarried, and Cynthia then lived with four siblings (one died in infancy), her step-mother, a half-sister, and two half-brothers. After attending St. Michael's School, Bloemfontein, she moved to live with her sister in Mashonaland.

In 1895 she married[5] Philip Stockley (1870-1917), a member of the Mashonaland Mounted Police, in Salisbury (now Harare). They moved to Umtali (now Mutare) where her daughter Dorothy was born in 1896.

The Stockleys separated later in 1896: she to take up a career in journalism and writing, he to participate in the Boer War. Thinking Philip had been killed in the Boer War, she remarried. Her husband was Joseph Byrne (1870-1945), an Irish doctor in New York; their son Patrick was born there in 1905 pp99.[4]

She also worked as an actress and bought a farm in Rhodesia and a house in Norfolk. In 1916 married Harold Pelham Browne (1880 -1939), an officer in the British army serving in Paris pp288.[4]

Stockley died in London in January 1936, having gassed herself in her apartment. Her death was reported in newspapers around the world. The coroner returned a verdict of death by gas poisoning ‘whilst of unsound mind’.[6] She is buried in Sheringham, Norfolk.

Novels

Her 16 books included:

  • Virginia of the Rhodesians, London: Hutchinson 1903
  • Poppy: the Story of a South African Girl, London: Hurst and Blackett 1909
  • The Claw, London: Hurst and Blackett 1911
  • The Dream Ship [Wanderfoot in America], London: Hurst and Blackett 1913
  • Blue Aloes: Stories of South Africa, London: Hutchinson 1918
  • Ponjola, London: Constable 1923
  • Tagati, London: Constable 1930

Films

With the advent of silent film several of her books were made into films:

Further reading
  • McLoughlin, Tim and Betty (2015). Veld Girl: Cynthia Stockley - A life recreated. Sweden: Elementa. ISBN 9176370127.

References
  1. Sacred Heart Cathedral in Bloemfontein Baptismal records 1850-1890 record 501 p49
  2. Mother's death certificate Bloemfontein
  3. Esme Bull, Aided Emigration from Britain to South Africa 1857 to 1867, ed. J.L.Basson (1991)
  4. Veld Girl: Cynthia Stockley - A life recreated by Tim and Betty Mcloughlin ISBN 9176370127
  5. Rhodesia Herald 10 May 1895
  6. Belfast Telegraph 17 January 1936, p.17
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