Thomas Alan Stephenson, 1898-1961

Thomas Alan Stephenson was born on 19 January 1898 at Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset. He was the first child, being later joined by a younger brother and then a sister. His father, Thomas Stephenson, D.D., was a Wesleyan Minister who shortly after the birth of his elder son was appointed a Tutor at the Wesleyan Trinity College, Richmond, Surrey, of which his father-inlaw, the Rev. George Fletcher was the Governor or Principal. The following years were the pleasantest in Alan Stephenson’s childhood. In his own words, ‘We lived in the Governor’s well appointed house, and had the run of the large College grounds and kitchen-garden, so that we were brought up in all the surroundings and circumstances usual to gentlefolk of good education in the Edwardian period. We were surrounded by flower-gardens, had Richmond Park and the Terrace Gardens and river close at hand (not to mention all the rather more remote attractions of the London area), and were provided with an adequate staff of well trained nurse maids, servants and gardeners’.'