Sir Alexander Condie Stephen (20 July 1850 – 10 May 1908) was a British diplomat and translator from Russian and Persian. He was the first translator of

Lermontov Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov (; russian: Михаи́л Ю́рьевич Ле́рмонтов, p=mʲɪxɐˈil ˈjurʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈlʲɛrməntəf; – ) was a Russian Romantic writer, poet and painter, sometimes called "the poet of the Caucas ...

's long poem "The Demon" into English, in 1875. He translated "Fairy Tales of a Parrot" from Persian in 1880. In 1884-5, he was Assistant Commissioner on the

Afghan Boundary Commission The Afghan Boundary Commission (or Joint Anglo-Russian Boundary Commission) was a joint effort by the United Kingdom and the Russian Empire to determine the northern border of Afghanistan The Boundary Commission traveled and documented the northern ...

. he had the crucial role of keeping communications open between the Commission, in north-west Afghanistan and threatened by a large Russian army, and the British government in London. When the Commission's presence almost triggered a war in the aftermath of the

Panjdeh incident The Panjdeh Incident (known in Russian historiography as the Battle of Kushka) was an armed engagement between the Emirate of Afghanistan and the Russian Empire in 1885 that led to a diplomatic crisis between the British Empire and the Russian ...

, he was sent to London to report to the government in person. He was knighted KCVO on 24 August 1900, for being HM minister resident in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

and

Coburg Coburg () is a town located on the Itz river in the Upper Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. Long part of one of the Thuringian states of the Wettin line, it joined Bavaria by popular vote only in 1920. Until the revolution of 1918, it was ...

. He was Groom in Waiting to

King Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria a ...

from 1901. He was caricatured in a Vanity Fair "Spy" print on 18 December 1902, as "Russian, Persian and Turkish". Stephen is buried in

Brompton Cemetery Brompton Cemetery (originally the West of London and Westminster Cemetery) is a London cemetery, managed by The Royal Parks, in West Brompton in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries. Estab ...

, London.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stephen, Alexander Condie 1850 births 1908 deaths British diplomats English translators Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Knights Commander of the Royal Victorian Order Companions of the Order of the Bath Burials at Brompton Cemetery Russian–English translators Persian–English translators 19th-century British translators British expatriates in Germany