Henry Palfrey Stephenson (27 March 1826 – 30 April 1890) was a Scottish-born

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

, and a founder of the Society of Engineers. The son of Major John Stephenson of the

6th Dragoon Guards The Carabiniers (6th Dragoon Guards) was a cavalry regiment of the British Army. It was formed in 1685 as the Lord Lumley's Regiment of Horse. It was renamed as His Majesty's 1st Regiment of Carabiniers in 1740, the 3rd Regiment of Horse (Carab ...

, Stephenson was born at Portobello, near

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, and lived for some early years in Ireland before being privately educated at a school in

Twickenham Twickenham ( ) is a suburban district of London, England, on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historic counties of England, Historically in Middlesex, since 1965 it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, who ...

.Obituary: Henry Palfrey Stephenson (1826-1890)
ICE, 1890. Retrieved: 30 September 2015. In 1842, he became a student at the College for Civil Engineers in

Putney Putney () is an affluent district in southwest London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. History Putney is an ...

(Sir Guilford Molesworth was among his fellow students). With Robert Monro Christie, he founded the Putney Club in 1854, which later became the Society of Engineers, serving as its chairman in 1856 and 1859.Society of Engineers: Committee and Officers for 1861
Retrieved: 30 September 2015 Stephenson's early professional work mainly involved surveys for railway routes in Ireland, dock works (he worked on the extension of

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

docks under John Murray), design of iron railway bridges (working for two years in partnership with William Dredge, and later with Robert King), English railway projects (he was engineer to the Ware, Hadham and Buntingford Railway), and arbitration work. From 1858 he designed and managed several town

gas lighting Gas lighting is the production of artificial light from combustion of a fuel gas such as methane, propane, butane, acetylene, ethylene, hydrogen, carbon monoxide, coal gas (town gas) or natural gas. The light is produced either directly by ...

projects in Germany and Holland, later serving on the boards of several UK and overseas gas companies. Elected an associate of the

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

in 1853, he became a full member in 1864.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stephenson, Henry Palfrey 1826 births 1890 deaths British railway civil engineers People from Portobello, Edinburgh Engineers from Edinburgh