Sir

Reginald Byng Stephens
Born(1869-10-10)10 October 1869
Died6 April 1955(1955-04-06) (aged 85)
Buried
Gloucestershire, England[1]
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service/branchBritish Army
Years of service1890–1931
RankGeneral
Commands heldTerritorial Army
4th Division
Royal Military College Sandhurst
X Corps
5th Division
25th Infantry Brigade
Battles/warsSecond Matabele War
Second Boer War
First World War
AwardsKnight Commander of the Order of the Bath
Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George
Mentioned in Despatches (6)
Other workDeputy Lieutenant, Gloucestershire

General Sir Reginald Byng Stephens, KCB, CMG, DL, JP (10 October 1869 – 6 April 1955) was a British Army general of the First World War and later Commandant of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, from 1919 to 1923, Major-General commanding the 4th Division, 1923 to 1926, and Director-General of the Territorial Army, 1927 to 1931.

Early life

The son of Captain Frederick Stephens, late the 2nd Regiment of Life Guards, of Bentworth Lodge, Alton, Hampshire, by his marriage on 13 January 1869 to Cecilia Mary, daughter of Captain H. Byng, of Quendon Hall, Essex, Stephens was educated at Winchester College.[2] His sister, Mabel, was born and died in 1870, and he also had five younger brothers, Berkeley, Lionel, Gerald Edmund, Evelyn Edward, and Frederick Geoffrey, and a second sister, Cicely Mary.[3]

Military career

Stephens trained at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, from where he was commissioned into the Rifle Brigade as a second lieutenant on 9 April 1890.[4] He was promoted lieutenant on 13 February 1892 and captain on 26 July 1897. He served in Matabeleland in the Second Matabele War from 1896 to 1897[5] and in the Nile Expedition of 1898. From late 1899 he served in South Africa in the Second Boer War of 1899 to 1902, during which he was severely wounded, was three times mentioned in despatches (including on 25 April 1902 "for his conduct of a successful attack on a Boer laager of 25 January 1901, and for general good service"),[6] promoted brevet major on 29 November 1900, and received the Queen's South Africa Medal with three clasps and the King's Medal with two clasps.[2] Following the end of the war, he left Port Natal on the SS Malta in late September 1902, together with other officers and men of the 2nd Battalion Rifle Brigade, who were transferred to Egypt.[7]

Stephens served in the First World War of 1914 to 1918, when he was three more times mentioned in despatches. He began the war as commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion the Rifle Brigade (1914–15), was promoted brevet colonel, appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George and of the Order of the Bath and promoted temporary brigadier-general and then temporary major general.[2] On 1 April 1916 he took over the command of the 5th Division.[8] In December 1917, he led the 5th Division to Italy as part of the British participation in the Italian campaign.[9]

Stephens was commander of X Corps from 1918 to 1919, when he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath, then was Commandant of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, from 1919 to 1923; Major-General commanding the 4th Division, 1923 to 1926; and Director-General of the Territorial Army, 1927 to 1931. Promoted lieutenant general in 1925 and general in 1930, Stephens retired from service in 1931. He settled in Gloucestershire, where he was appointed a Justice of the Peace and a Deputy Lieutenant for the county.[2]

Marriage

On 10 August 1905, Stephens married Eleanore Dorothea, the younger daughter of Edmund William Cripps, of Ampney Park, Cirencester, and they had one son and two daughters.[2][10]

Their son, Frederick Stephens, CBE DSO, was born on 19 June 1906. He followed his father into the Rifle Brigade, during the Second World War commanded its 1st Battalion in the Western Desert and Tunisia, and retired as a brigadier in 1959, when he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.[11]

Their daughter, Air Commandant Dame Anne Stephens (4 November 1912 – 26 July 2000), was Director of the Women's Royal Air Force from 1960 until her retirement in 1963.[12]

Honours

Arms

References

  1. ↑ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/149134699/reginald-byng-stephens
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 'Stephens, General Sir Reginald Byng', in Who Was Who, 1951–1960 (London: A. & C. Black, 1984 reprint, ISBN 0-7136-2598-8)
  3. 1 2 3 4 Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, Armorial families: a directory of gentlemen of coat-armour (Hurst & Blackett, 1929) p. 1837.
  4. ↑ London Gazette dated 8 April 1890, "Gentleman Cadet Reginald Byng Stephens, from the Royal Military College, to be Second Lieutenant, vice E. W. H. Somerset, deceased. Dated 9 April 1890".
  5. 1 2 'Stephens of Church House' in AN ARMORIAL OF ZIMBABWE AND RHODESIA at heraldic-arts.com, accessed 31 May 2011.
  6. ↑ "No. 27428". The London Gazette. 25 April 1902. p. 2768.
  7. ↑ "The Army in South Africa – Troops returning Home". The Times. No. 36887. London. 1 October 1902. p. 8.
  8. ↑ Arthur Herbert Hussey, D. S. Inman, The Fifth Division in the Great War (London: Nisbet & Co., 1921), p. 103.
  9. ↑ George H. Cassar, The Forgotten Front: the British campaign in Italy, 1917–1918, p. 104.
  10. ↑ Joseph Jackson Howard, Visitation of England and Wales, vol. 12 (1906), p. xix
  11. ↑ 'Stephens, Frederick' in British Army Officers 1939–1945 at unithistories.com, accessed 31 May 2011.
  12. ↑ "Dame Anne Stephens: in full command of the WRAF (obituary)". The Times. 7 August 2000. Retrieved 30 November 2016.
  13. ↑ London Gazette, 21 August 1919 (Supplement), p. 10606
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