John Stephenson

John Stephenson CIE FRS FRSE FRCS (6 February 1871, in Padiham, Lancashire – 2 February 1933, in London) was a surgeon and zoologist. He was a leading expert on the earthworms of the Indian subcontinent and served as editor of the Fauna of British India series from 1927. Knowledgeable in Persian, Hindustani and some Arabic, he was an orientalist scholar and translated several works from Persian to English. He also served as the Principal of Government College, Lahore from 1912 to 1919.

Life Stephenson was born in Padiham and was educated at Burnley Grammar School, matriculated from Owen's College, Manchester and graduated there with a B.Sc. (Lond.) in 1890 and M.B., B.Chir. (Manc.) in 1893. Stephenson was a house physician from 1893 to 1894 at the Manchester Royal Infirmary and then in 1894 at the Royal Hospital for Diseases of the Chest, London.

In India he was for some years engaged in military duties; he saw field service with the Tirah Expeditionary Force in 1897–98, for which he was awarded the medal and clasp, and for a time he was placed on plague duty. In 1898 he was appointed Medical Officer to the 2nd (later 22nd) Punjab Cavalry and from 1900 to 1906 he held civil surgeoncies at Peshawar, Ambala and other stations in north-west India. He was made CIE in 1919. From 1920 to 1929 he was a lecturer in Zoology at the University of Edinburgh. He left Edinburgh University in 1929 to work at the Natural History Museum, London as editor of the Fauna of British India series

Family

In 1895 he married Gertrude Bayne, who outlived him. There were no children from the marriage.

Awards and honours 1912 — Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1919 — Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire 1930 — Fellow of the Royal Society of London

In 1914, botanist S.R. Kashyap published Stephensoniella, a genus of liverwort in (Exormothecaceae family) and named in his honour.

Selected publications as author:

as translator: