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- According to most sources British author Cynthia Stockley was born in London around 1863 with the birth name Lilian Julian Webb. She could have been the oldest daughter of Frederick I. and Mary A. Webb. Their daughter is the only Lilian (or Lillian) Webb found in the 1871 English Census who was born in London around 1863. At that time of the 1871 census Frederick Webb was a schoolmaster in the village of Charles in the county of Devon. By the 1891 census his daughter Lilian was working as a teacher at a boarding school in London. This may or may not be the correct family connection. Also most of the news accounts at the time of her death believed that Stockley had been born in South Africa.
In 1896 Cynthia Stockley relocated to the then British colony of Rhodesia. There she married Rhodesian police officer Phillip George Watts Stockley and later Colonel H. E. Pelham-Browne, one of the earliest European settlers of Rhodesia.
Sometime around the turn of the twentieth century Stockley returned to England and began working as a newspaper writer. Her first book, "Virginia of Rhodesians" (1904), was a collection of short stories that achieved international success. Later "Poppy, The Story of a South African Girl" (1910), received a great deal of attention for its frankness about marriage, morality, sex and depression. A list of some of her later books include: "The Claw: Stories of South Africa" (1911), "The Dream Ship" (1913), "Wild Honey: Stories of South Africa"" (1914), "Blue Aloes: Stories of South Africa" (1918), "Pink Gods and Blue Demons" (1920), "The Sins of Rosanne" (1920), "Ponjola" (1923), "Dalla The Lion-Cub: Stories of South Africa." (1924), "The Garden of Peril: A Story of the African Veld" (1924), "Perilous Woman: A Story of the African Veld" (1924), "Three Farms: A Story of South Africa" (1925), "The Dice of God: Stories of South Africa" (1926), "Leopard in the Bush: A Sequel to "Dalla the Lion-Cub" (1926), "Tagati (Magic)" (1930), "Kraal Baby: A Novel" (1934) and "Perilous Stuff: Three Short Novels" (1936).
Cynthia Stockley ended her life on 15 January, 1936 by inhaling coal gas in her London home. Her fading popularity and reduced financial circumstances may have played a factor in her death. Some believe that had her stories not revolved so much around colonial life in Africa that she might be better remembered today.