Alfred Stephenson was born on 25 November 1908 at Norwich. He was educated at King Edward VI School, Norwich, and at St. Catharine's College, Cambridge, graduating with a degree in geography in 1930. He was appointed chief surveyor to the British Arctic Air Route Expedition, 1930-1931 (leader Henry George Watkins), participating in boat and sledging journeys to survey and chart parts of the east coast of Greenland. Stephenson climbed with Lawrence Rickard Wager to within 550 feet of the summit of Mount Forel, for many years a record height in Greenland. In 1932, he returned to the Arctic with the British Polar Year Expedition to Fort Rae, Canada, 1932-1933 (leader James Martin Stagg), as meteorological observer. He was placed in charge of the dog teams and undertook several sledge journeys in which he conducted surveys in the Great Slave Lake region.
In 1934, he was invited to participate in the British Graham Land Expedition, 1934-1937 (leader John Rymill), as chief surveyor and meteorologist. His skills as both dog-driver and surveyor were crucial to the success of the expedition, in which it was proved that Graham Land was a peninsula and not an archipelago.
On his return to Britain, Stephenson was appointed lecturer in surveying at Imperial College, London. During the Second World War, he served in the Royal Air Force, playing a major part in the development of photo-interpretation techniques, for which he was awarded the OBE. After the war, he returned to Imperial College, where he remained until his retirement in 1972, and during the summers from 1947 to 1949 he worked for the Air Survey Council in Labrador. Between 1946 and 1986, Stephenson was in charge of the surveying instruments held at the Royal Geographical Society, as well as serving on the expeditions committee. He was instrumental in founding the Young Explorers' Trust and was honorary secretary of the Antarctic Club from 1956 until his retirement in 1996 when the club established the Stephenson Award, an annual prize for expedition work within the trust. He died on 3 July 1999 at Southampton.
Published work Southern lights; the official account of the British Graham Land Expedition by John Riddoch Rymill, Alfred Stephenson and Hugh Robert Mill, Chatto and Windus London (1938) SPRI Library Shelf Special Collection (7)91(08)[1934-1937]
From the guide to the Alfred Stephenson collection, 1930-1937, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)
