Colonel Holman Fred Stephens (31 October 1868 – 23 October 1931) was a British

light railway A light railway is a railway built at lower costs and to lower standards than typical "heavy rail": it uses lighter-weight track, and may have more steep gradients and tight curves to reduce civil engineering costs. These lighter standards allow ...

civil engineer and manager. He was engaged in engineering and building, and later managing, 16 light railways in England and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

Biography

Stephens was the son of

Frederic George Stephens Frederic George Stephens (10 October 1827 – 9 March 1907) was a British art critic, and one of the two 'non-artistic' members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Life Stephens was born to Septimus Stephens of Aberdeen and Ann (née Cook) ...

Pre-Raphaelite The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...

artist and

art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...

, and his wife the artist Rebecca Clara (née Dalton). He was named after his father's friend and former tutor, the painter

Holman Hunt William Holman Hunt (2 April 1827 – 7 September 1910) was an English painter and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His paintings were notable for their great attention to detail, vivid colour, and elaborate symbolis ...

, although the two later fell out. He was a great nephew of the naturalist, explorer and biologist,

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

. Stephens was apprenticed in the workshops of the

Metropolitan Railway The Metropolitan Railway (also known as the Met) was a passenger and goods railway that served London from 1863 to 1933, its main line heading north-west from the capital's financial heart in the City to what were to become the Middlesex su ...

in 1881. He was an assistant engineer during the building of the Cranbrook and Paddock Wood Railway, which opened in 1892. In 1894 he became an associate member of the

Institution of Civil Engineers The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters are located in the UK, whi ...

, which allowed him to design and build railways in his own right. He immediately set about his lifetime's project of operating

s for rural areas, mostly planned and built under the

1896 Light Railways Act The Light Railways Act 1896 (59 & 60 Vict. c.48) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. History Before the Act each new railway line built in the country required a specific Act of Parliament to be ob ...

. His first two railways, the

Rye and Camber Tramway The Rye and Camber Tramway was an English railway in East Sussex. It was of narrow gauge, relatively unusual amongst British narrow gauge railways. It operated from 1895 until 1939, connecting Rye to the coast. It was about in len ...

and the Hundred of Manhood and Selsey Tramway, predated this, but he built the first railway under the Act, the Rother Valley Railway (later the

Kent and East Sussex Railway The Kent and East Sussex Railway (K&ESR) refers to both a historical private railway company in Kent and East Sussex in England, as well as a heritage railway currently running on part of the route of the historical company. Historical compa ...

). The railways were planned, and some later run, from an office at 23 Salford Terrace in

Tonbridge Tonbridge ( ) is a market town in Kent, England, on the River Medway, north of Royal Tunbridge Wells, south west of Maidstone and south east of London. In the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Malling, it had an estimated population ...

, Kent, which Stephens had rented in 1900 and purchased in 1927. Many of his railways stayed independent of the larger systems created in the Grouping under the

Railways Act 1921 The Railways Act 1921 (c. 55), also known as the Grouping Act, was an Act of Parliament enacted by the British government and intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, by "grouping" them into four la ...

. Stephens had no close relatives and never married. He had few interests outside of railways other than voluntary military service and

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

politics. In 1916, during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Stephens attained the rank of

Lieutenant-Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...

in the Territorial Army (TA) with which he had been associated since the 1890s. He continued to support the TA throughout most of the 1920s. When he died in 1931 aged 62, the management of his railways was taken over by his former "outdoor assistant" and life partner, W. H. Austen, who ran them until they closed or were incorporated into the national system in 1948. A museum devoted to his life and achievements is at Tenterden Station in Kent.

The railways

There are several books about Col. Stephens's railways. The railways in which Stephens was involved were:

Other projects

Stephens was involved in many projects that did not come to fruition, 18 of which reached the early, Light Railway Order, stage. Many were extensions to existing railways; one was the 1920s 'Southern Heights Light Railway', a single-track electrified railway from

Orpington Orpington is a town and area in south east London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is 13.4 miles (21.6 km) south east of Charing Cross. On the south-eastern edge of the Greater London Built-up Area, it is south of St Ma ...

Sanderstead Sanderstead is a village and medieval-founded church parish at the southern end of Croydon in south London, England, within the London Borough of Croydon, and formerly in the historic county of Surrey, until 1965. It takes in Purley Downs and S ...

. He was involved in: *Central Essex Railway * East Kent Light Railway Extensions *East Sussex Railway *Gower Railway *Hadlow Railway *Headcorn and Faversham Junction Railway * Headcorn and Maidstone Junction Railway *Hedingham and Long Melford Railway *Kelvedon, Coggeshall and Halstead Railway *Lands End, St Just and Great Western Junction Railway *Long Melford and Hadleigh Railway *Maidstone and Faversham Junction Railway *Maidstone and Sittingbourne Railway *Newport and Four Ashes Railway *Orpington, Cudham and Tatsfield Railway *Shropshire Railways (Shrewsbury and Market Drayton Extension) *

Southern Heights Light Railway The Southern Heights Light Railway (SHLR) was to have been a speculative London area suburban electric railway between , Kent and , Surrey. It was authorised in 1928 under the Light Railways Act 1896, but ultimately not constructed. The engineer ...

*Surrey and Sussex Railway *Worcester and Broom Railway

Locomotives

The majority of the locomotives were second-hand, but a few were bought new from

Hawthorn Leslie and Company R. & W. Hawthorn, Leslie and Company, Limited, usually referred to as Hawthorn Leslie, was a shipbuilder and locomotive manufacturer. The company was founded on Tyneside in 1886 and ceased building ships in 1982. History The company was formed ...

including:The Colonel Stephens Museum – locomotives
None of these has been preserved.

References

External links

Colonel Stephens Society

Colonel Stephens Railway Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stephens, Holman Frederick 1868 births 1931 deaths Alumni of University College London British civil engineers British railway entrepreneurs Hawthorn Leslie and Company locomotives