fiction.wikisort.org - Writer

Cynthia Stockley (7 July 1873 – 15 January 1936) was a South African novelist known for her romance novels usually set in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South Africa.

Cynthia Stockley
Born	Lilian Julian Webb (1873-07-07)7 July 1873 Bloemfontein, South Africa
Died	15 January 1936(1936-01-15) (aged 62) London, England
Occupation	Writer
Education	St. Michael's School, Bloemfontein
Notable works	Poppy the Story of a South African Girl, Ponjola
Spouse	Philip Stockley Joseph 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:

• Poppy (1917)
• The Claw (1918)
• Wild Honey (1922)
• Ponjola (1923)
• The Female (1924)
• The Claw (1927)

References

Further reading

• McLoughlin, Tim and Betty (2015). Veld Girl: Cynthia Stockley - A life recreated. Sweden: Elementa. ISBN 9176370127. Archived from the original on 18 March 2017. Retrieved 17 March 2017.

External links

• Works by Cynthia Stockley at Project Gutenberg
• Cynthia Stockley at IMDb

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