John Stephenson

John Stephenson CIE FRS FRSE FRCS (6 February 1871, in Padiham, Lancashire – 2 February 1933, in London) was a surgeon and zoologist. He was a leading expert on the earthworms of the Indian subcontinent and served as editor of the Fauna of British India series from 1927. Knowledgeable in Persian, Hindustani and some Arabic, he was also an orientalist scholar and translated several works from Persian to English. Life Stephenson was born in Padiham and was education at Burnley Grammar School, matriculated from Owen's College, Manchester and graduated there with a B.Sc. (Lond.) in 1890 and M.B., B.Chir. (Manc.) in 1893. Stephenson was a house physician from 1893 to 1894 at the Manchester Royal Infirmary and then in 1894 at the Royal Hospital for Diseases of the Chest, London. He had also studied zoology under A. Milnes Marshall. He joined the Indian Medical Service as a lieutenant on 29 July 1895. He became captain on 29 July 1898, major on 29 January 1907, and lieutenant-colonel on 29 January 1915, retiring with that rank on 6 September 1921. On 14 December 1905 Stephenson was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in London. In 1909 he received an honorary doctorate (DSc) from the University of London.