Frederick Stephens

Brigadier Frederick Stephens (19 June 1906 − 9 November 1967) was a British Army officer of the Second World War.

Military career Stephens was the only son of Sir Reginald Byng Stephens and Eleanore Dorothea Cripps. He was educated at Winchester College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He commissioned into his father's regiment, the Rifle Brigade, on 3 September 1925. Between 1926 and 1931 he served with the regiment in India, before a secondment with the King's African Rifles in British Somaliland until September 1936. He was promoted to captain in 1937 and became Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General of the 1st Armoured Division in 1939. He served with the division in the Battle of France and North Africa until July 1942, when he was made Commanding Officer of 1st Battalion, The Rifle Brigade. In October 1942 Stephens was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel and on 31 December 1942 he was invested as a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order. From August 1943 to May 1944 Stephens served as Chief Instructor to British Forces in Haifa. In July 1944 he became an instructor at the United States Army Command and General Staff College, before becoming Commander of the 308th Infantry Brigade in July 1945.

On 25 July 1936 he married Esmé Mackenzie Churchill (1908–1987), second daughter of Colonel Mackenzie Churchill. They had one son and one daughter. Frederick Stephens is buried in the churchyard of St. Lawrence church, Lechlade, Gloucestershire.