Sir Augustus Frederick William Keppel Stephenson KCB, QC (born before 1849 - died 26 September 1904)[1] was a Treasury Solicitor and the second person to hold the office of Director of Public Prosecutions in England and Wales.[2]
One notable case occurred in 1889 when Stephenson was given the Cleveland Street scandal to prosecute. It involved various members of the aristocracy (such as Lord Arthur Somerset and the Earl of Euston), but these people were "allowed" (in the words of the radical journal the North London Press) to escape prosecution, something which attracted Stephenson a lot of criticism from the press.[3]
Stephenson was born in London in 1827 and was the son of Henry Frederick Stephenson, barrister-at-law. Henry Frederick Stephenson was M.P. for Westbury (1831-49). The mother of Augustus was Lady Mary Keppel. Lady Mary was one of the eleven children of the 4th Earl of Albemarle.[4] Stephenson married Eglantine Pleydell-Bouverie, daughter of Rt. Hon. Edward Pleydell-Bouverie and Elizabeth Anne Balfour, on 5 December 1864.[5]
| Preceded by Sir John Maule |
Director of Public Prosecutions 1884–1894 |
Succeeded by Lord Hamilton Cuffe |