Henry Stephen

Henry Stephen OBE, DSc. (10 July 1889 – 6 July 1965) was an English chemist who might be best remembered for inventing the Stephen Reaction, a way to make aldehydes (R-CHO) from nitriles (R-CN). He was born in Manchester.

Henry Stephen studied chemistry under Dr Chaim Weizmann at Victoria University of Manchester.Along with Dr. J. E. Myers also of the University of Manchester, Henry Stephen contributed to the British WWI effort by developing a process to make mustard gas that was more rapid than the process being used by the Germans. In 1920, both received the OBE award for their work.He received his DSc degree from Victoria University of Manchester in 1920 and continued on as a senior lecturer. In 1925 he published A New Synthesis of Aldehydes, known as the Stephen Reaction. From 1926 to 1954, Henry Stephen was professor of chemistry at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.

In 1957 Henry and his wife Dr. Theodora (Dora) Stephen moved to Oxford England and together edited the organic chemistry journal Tetrahedron from 1957 up to his death in 1965, after which Dora continued on as editor.

His widow Dora gave the lake and woodland behind The Kilns in Risinghurst to the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust in 1969, and it is known as the Henry Stephen/C.S.Lewis Nature Reserve in his memory.