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Stella Isaacs, Marchioness of Reading

© National Portrait Gallery, London. Image credit: National Portrait Gallery, London

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Chair and founder of the Women's Royal Voluntary Service (WVS), an organisation created in 1938 to assist the civil population in the event of war. Having led the voluntary Personal Service League since 1932, Stella Isaacs was invited to form the WVS by Sir Samuel Hoare, the Home Secretary. By 1942 the WVS had mobilized more than 1 million women to help with evacuations, the care of refugees and bomb victims, and welfare provision for the armed forces. Continuing after the war, the organisation gained its royal accolade in 1966 and Lady Reading remained active as its chair throughout her life. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography states that 'In character and appearance Lady Reading was a large woman with a deep voice and an evidently powerful personality.

National Portrait Gallery, London

London

Title

Stella Isaacs, Marchioness of Reading

Date

1961–1962

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

H 112 x W 91.4 cm

Accession number

6833

Acquisition method

Given by the Women's Royal Voluntary Service, 2008

Work type

Painting

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National Portrait Gallery, London

St Martin’s Place, London, Greater London WC2H 0HE England

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