Cynthia Stockley was born Lilian Julian Webb in London in 1862. In 1896 she moved to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Her first marriage was to P.G.W. Stockley of the Rhodesian police. She later married Colonel Pelham-Browne, a Rhodesian pioneer velt farmer. She had nearly 20 novels and collections of short stories published before, sadly, she committed suicide in 1936.