Stephen, Frederick Charles
Rank: Lieutenant
Regiment: 6th Battalion Gordon Highlanders
Biography: Son of John Stephen, farmer; Born Fordyce, 4 December 1886; educated Fordyce Academy; entered Aberdeen University as seventh Bursar; graduated M.A. (I Math.), 1909; Simpson Mathematical Prize, Greig Prize in Natural Philosophy, and David Rennet Gold Medal. In October 1909 he went up to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and in June 1910 was elected to a College Scholarship, holding at the same time both the Fullerton and Ferguson Scholarships in Mathematics. He left Cambridge with a First Class in both parts of the Mathematical Tripos, joined the staff of Merchant Taylor's School, and was doing very successful work in preparing boys for Sandhurst and the Universities. In August 1914 he enlisted in the 4th Battalion Gordon Highlanders, and soon afterwards went to the Front with a commission in the 6th Gordons. To his work as an officer he brought the same honourable and conscientious spirit as had marked his student days, and the splendid strength and skill of body which had made him an athlete of whom his College was proud. When he fell at Loos on 25 September 1915, as a Lieutenant of bomb-throwers, his Battalion lost a good officer and his University a distinguished son. Quiet and modest, liked and respected by every one, it was only to his intimate friends that he was really known in the brightness and charm of which he was capable; and it was only such friends who could realize and appreciate the greatness of their loss.
Date of Death: 25 September 1915
Burial Details: Name recorded on the Loos Memorial, Panel 115, Column 1.
Publication: Roll of Service, edited by Mabel Desborough Allardyce. Published 1921.
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