{{Short description|British Army general (1869–1955)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}} {{Infobox military person | honorific_prefix = General | name = Sir Reginald Stephens | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|KCB|CMG|DL|JP}} | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | nickname = | birth_date = {{birth date|1869|10|10|df=yes}} | death_date = {{death date and age|1955|04|06|1869|10|10|df=yes}} | birth_place = Hampshire, England<ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TuHIDwAAQBAJ&dq=gen+Reginald+byng+Stephens+1869&pg=PA1263 | title=The county families of the United Kingdom; or, Royal manual of the titled and untitled aristocracy of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland | last1=Walford | first1=Edward | date=January 1860 }}</ref> | death_place = | allegiance = United Kingdom | branch = British Army | service_years = 1890–1931 | rank = General | unit = Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own) | commands = Territorial Army<br/>4th Division<br/>Royal Military College, Sandhurst<br/>X Corps<br/>5th Division<br/>25th Infantry Brigade | battles = Second Matabele War<br/>Second Boer War<br/>First World War | awards = Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath<br/>Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George<br/>Mentioned in Despatches (6) | relations = | other_work = Deputy lieutenant, Gloucestershire }} General '''Sir Reginald Byng Stephens''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100|sep=,|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.<ref name=who>'Stephens, General Sir Reginald Byng', in ''Who Was Who, 1951–1960'' (London: A. & C. Black, 1984 reprint, {{ISBN|0-7136-2598-8}})</ref> 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.<ref name=fox/>

==Military career== Stephens trained at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, from where he was commissioned into the Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own) as a second lieutenant on 9 April 1890.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=26040|page=2100|date=8 April 1890}}</ref> He was promoted lieutenant on 13 February 1892 and captain on 28 July 1897,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=26891|page=5107|date=14 September 1897}}</ref> later antedated to 26 July.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=26919|page=7480|date=14 December 1897}}</ref> He served in Matabeleland in the Second Matabele War from 1896 to 1897<ref name=heraldic/> 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 dispatches (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"),<ref>{{London Gazette| issue=27428 |page=2768 |date=25 April 1902}}</ref> 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.<ref name=who/>

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.<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=The Army in South Africa – Troops returning Home |date=1 October 1902 |page=8 |issue=36887| }}</ref>

Stephens, who in December 1905 had been promoted to major,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=27860|page=8738|date=5 December 1905}}</ref> was in January 1907 made commander of a company of gentlemen cadets, in succession to Major Louis Bols.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=27992|page=828|date=5 February 1907}}</ref>

He served in the First World War of 1914 to 1918, when he was three more times mentioned in dispatches. He began the war, having been promoted to lieutenant colonel in March 1914,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=28815|page=2540|date=24 March 1914}}</ref> as commanding officer (CO) of the 2nd Battalion, Rifle Brigade (1914–15), was promoted brevet colonel, appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in June 1916<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=29608|page=5558|date=2 June 1916|supp=y}}</ref> and of the Order of the Bath<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=13186|page=8|date=2 January 1918|city=e}}</ref> and promoted temporary brigadier general in May 1915<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=29199|page=5964|date=18 June 1915|supp=y}}</ref> and then temporary major general in April 1916,<ref name=who/><ref>{{London Gazette|issue=29566|page=4435|date=2 May 1916|supp=y}}</ref> which in January 1917 was made substantive.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=29886|page=15|date=29 December 1916|supp=y}}</ref> On 1 April 1916 he succeeded Charles Kavanagh as general officer commanding (GOC ) of the 5th Division.<ref>Arthur Herbert Hussey, D. S. Inman, ''The Fifth Division in the Great War'' (London: Nisbet & Co., 1921), p. 103.</ref> In December 1917, he led the 5th Division to Italy as part of the British participation in the Italian campaign.<ref>George H. Cassar, ''The Forgotten Front: the British campaign in Italy, 1917–1918'', p. 104.</ref> The stay only lasted until March 1918 when Stephens and his division returned to the Western Front to try and stem the German spring offensive. Stephens was then commander of X Corps from July 1918 to the end of the war.

He continued as GOC X Corps until 1919, when he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=31092|page=1|date=31 December 1918|supp=y}}</ref> then was commandant of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, from July 1919, taking over from Major General Lionel Stopford,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=31479|page=9666|date=29 July 1919|supp=y}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette|issue=31591|page=12516|date=7 October 1919|supp=y}}</ref> to 1923; GOC the 4th Division, 1923<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=32878|page=7659|date=9 November 1923}}</ref> to 1926; and director general of the Territorial Army, 1927 to 1931. He was promoted to lieutenant general in January 1926<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=33120|page=45|date=1 January 1926}}</ref> and, after succeeding Lieutenant General Sir Henry F. M. Wilson as colonel commandant of the 2nd Battalion, Rifle Brigade, in February 1929,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=33468|page=1194|date=19 February 1929}}</ref> he became a general in August 1930,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=33639|page=5358|date=29 August 1930}}</ref> before retiring from the service in 1931.

He settled in Gloucestershire, where he was appointed a justice of the peace and a deputy lieutenant for the county.<ref name=who/>

==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.<ref name=who/><ref>{{cite book|editor-first=Frederick Arthur |editor-last=Crisp |title=Visitation of England and Wales |volume=12 |url=https://archive.org/details/visitationofengl12howa/page/n262/mode/1up|year=1904 |page=xix |publisher=Privately printed |location=London}}</ref>

Their son, Frederick Stephens, {{post-nominals|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.<ref>'Stephens, Frederick' in ''[http://www.unithistories.com/officers/Army_officers_S02.html British Army Officers 1939–1945]'' at unithistories.com, accessed 31 May 2011.</ref>

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.<ref name="times-obit">{{cite news|title=Dame Anne Stephens: in full command of the WRAF (obituary)|url=http://find.galegroup.com/ttda/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=TTDA&userGroupName=lancs&tabID=T003&docPage=article&searchType=BasicSearchForm&docId=IF501388923&type=multipage&contentSet=LTO&version=1.0|accessdate=30 November 2016|work=The Times|date=7 August 2000 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==Honours== *Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, 1916<ref name=who/> *Croix de Guerre, Belgium<ref name=fox>Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, ''Armorial families: a directory of gentlemen of coat-armour'' (Hurst & Blackett, 1929) p. 1837.</ref> *Croix de guerre and Legion of Honour, France, 1919<ref name=fox/><ref>''London Gazette'', 21 August 1919 (Supplement), [http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/31514/supplements/10606/page.pdf p. 10606]</ref> *Order of St Maurice and St Lazarus, Italy<ref name=fox/> *Companion of the Order of the Bath, 1918<ref name=who/> *Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath, 1919<ref name=who/>

==Arms== *''Or, on a chevron engrailed azure between two demi-lions in chief and a griffin segreant in base gules, three cross-crosslets of the field''.<ref name=heraldic>'Stephens of Church House' in [http://www.heraldic-arts.com/Downloads/ArmorialZimRhodesia.pdf AN ARMORIAL OF ZIMBABWE AND RHODESIA] at heraldic-arts.com, accessed 31 May 2011.</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

{{s-start}} {{S-mil}} {{s-bef|before=Charles Kavanagh}} {{s-ttl|title=GOC 5th Division|years=1916–1918}} {{s-aft|after=John Ponsonby}} |- {{s-bef|before=William Peyton}} {{s-ttl|title=GOC X Corps|years=1918–1919}} {{s-non|reason=Post disbanded}} |- {{s-bef|before=Lionel Stopford}} {{s-ttl|title=Commandant of the Royal Military College Sandhurst|years=1919–1923}} {{s-aft|after=Herbert Shoubridge}} |- {{s-bef|before=Cameron Shute}} {{s-ttl|title=GOC 4th Division|years=1923–1926}} {{s-aft|after=Percy Radcliffe}} |- {{s-bef|before=Sir Hugh Jeudwine}} {{s-ttl|title=Director-General Territorial Army|years=1927–1931}} {{s-aft|after=Sir William Thwaites}} {{end}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stephens, Reginald Byng}} Category:1869 births Category:1955 deaths Category:British Army generals Category:People educated at Winchester College Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Category:Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Category:Deputy lieutenants of Gloucestershire Category:English justices of the peace Category:Rifle Brigade officers Category:Commandants of Sandhurst Category:Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst Category:People of the Second Matabele War Category:British Army generals of World War I Category:British Army personnel of the Second Boer War Category:Burials in Gloucestershire Category:Military personnel from Hampshire Category:Academics of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst