Sir_David_Stephens

David Stephens (parliamentary official)

David Stephens (parliamentary official)

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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 Mission 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. [1]
    The Times, 5 April 1990.
  2. [2]
    https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1974/jul/31/the-clerk-of-the-parliaments. Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). House of Lords. 31 July 1974. col. 2302. {{cite book}}: |chapter-url= missing title (help)
  3. [3]
    "No. 42051". The London Gazette. 11 June 1960. p. 3977.
  4. [4]
    https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1961/oct/18/reading-clerk-and-clerk-of-outdoor. Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). House of Lords. 18 October 1961. col. 439. {{cite book}}: |chapter-url= missing title (help)
  5. [5]
    "No. 43030". The London Gazette. 18 June 1963. p. 5181.
  6. [6]
    "No. 43343". The London Gazette. 13 June 1964. p. 4939.
  7. [7]
    The Times, 26 March 1941, page 7.
  8. [8]
    http://jac.judiciary.gov.uk/about-jac/1243.htm Archived 2011-08-07 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 1 May 2011.
  9. [9]
    The Times, 7 December 1981, page 7.
  10. [10]
    The Times, 20 October 1966, page 14.
  11. [11]
    The Times, 30 October 1967, page 10.
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