Lady Stella became a member of the aristocracy through her marriage to the Marquess of Reading. During the 1930s she served on a number of advisory bodies and commissions which she believed was part of her role to do public good.
In 1938, with war imminent, she was asked to set up the Women's Voluntary Service for Civil Defence. Over a million women, mainly housewives, became transport drivers and air raid wardens, staffed reception centres for refugees and set up mobile canteens for rescue workers and countless other tasks making life more bearable.
In 1958, Stella Reading was created a life peer, becoming Baroness Swanborough. She was the first woman to take her seat in the House of Lords. In 1966, the Women's Voluntary Service became the Women's Royal Voluntary Service, which still exists today.
