David Stephens (public servant)

Sir David Stephens KCB CVO (25 April 1910 – 3 April 1990) was a British public servant and Clerk of the Parliaments from 1963 to 1974.^[1] He was educated at Winchester College, Christ Church, Oxford and The Queen's College, Oxford.

He became a Clerk in the House of Lords in 1935, but left in 1938 to become a member of the Runciman Commission to Czechoslovakia.^[1] In the same year he transferred to HM Treasury.^[2] From 1947 to 1949 he was Principal Private Secretary to Herbert Morrison as Lord President of the Council.^[2] From 1955 to 1961 he was Secretary for Appointments to the Prime Minister, serving first Sir Anthony Eden and then Harold Macmillan.^[2] In 1960 he was made CVO.^[3]

In 1961 he returned to the House of Lords as Reading Clerk.^[4] He was appointed Clerk of the Parliaments in 1963,^[5] and made KCB in 1964.^[6]

After his retirement in 1974 he served from 1976 to 1981 as Chairman of the Redundant Churches Fund^[1] (now the Churches Conservation Trust).

Personal Life

In 1941 David Stephens married Clemency Gore Browne.^[7] They had three sons and a daughter. His youngest son, Christopher Stephens, was appointed Chairman of the Judicial Appointments Commission in 2011.^[8] His daughter Caroline married Richard Ryder, later Lord Ryder of Wensum, in 1981.^[9] After the death of his first wife in 1966,^[10] Sir David Stephens married Charlotte Manisty in 1967.^[11]

Notes and references

1. ^ ^{a b c} The Times, 5 April 1990.
2. ^ ^{a b c} Parliamentary Debates, House of Lords, 31 July 1974, column 2302.
3. ^ London Gazette: no. 42051. p. 3977. 11 June 1960. Retrieved 1 May 2011.
4. ^ Parliamentary Debates, House of Lords, 18 October 1961, column 439.
5. ^ London Gazette: no. 43030. p. 5181. 18 June 1963. Retrieved 1 May 2011.
6. ^ London Gazette: no. 43343. p. 4939. 13 June 1964. Retrieved 1 May 2011.
7. ^ The Times, 26 March 1941, page 7.
8. ^ http://jac.judiciary.gov.uk/about-jac/1243.htm Retrieved 1 May 2011.
9. ^ The Times, 7 December 1981, page 7.
10. ^ The Times, 20 October 1966, page 14.
11. ^ The Times, 30 October 1967, page 10.

Persondata
Name	Stephens, Sir David
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	25 April 1910
Place of birth
Date of death	3 April 1990
Place of death