Marjory Stephenson

British biochemist (1885–1948)

Marjory Stephenson (24 January 1885 – 12 December 1948) was a British biochemist. In 1945, she was one of the first two women elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, the other being Kathleen Lonsdale. She wrote Bacterial Metabolism (1930), which ran to three editions and was a standard textbook for generations of microbiologists. A founder of the Society for General Microbiology, she also served as its second president. In 1953, the Society established the Marjory Stephenson Memorial Lecture (now the Marjory Stephenson Prize Lecture) in her memory.

Stephenson grew up in Burwell, a village on the edge of The Fens in Cambridgeshire, between Newmarket and Cambridge. Her father Robert (1847–1929) was a farmer, surveyor and owner of a cement manufacturing company; her mother was Sarah Rogers (1848–1925). Robert Stephenson was a prominent figure in the local community, appointed as a Justice of the Peace and then Deputy Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire; he was also a chairman of the County Council. He employed many local people in his cement works. Both of Stephenson's grandfathers, Robert Matthew Stephenson (1815–1870) and Samuel Rogers, were racehorse trainers in Newmarket, a major horse racing centre. Samuel Rogers had been a jockey before becoming a trainer. She was first inspired to take an interest in science by her governess Anna Jane Botwright. Stephenson later studied at the Berkhamsted School for Girls in Hertfordshire. In 1903 she went to Newnham College, Cambridge. Stephenson read Natural Sciences, taking courses in chemistry, physiology and zoology for Part I of the Natural Sciences Tripos. She was awarded a Beit Memorial Fellowship in 1913, but her work was interrupted by the First World War. She also received an Associate Royal Red Cross (ARRC) in recognition of her service. As a result of her war time experience, she became a pacifist and, later, was an active member of the Cambridge Scientists' Anti War Group. Also in 1947 she was finally recognised by the university for her many years of service; they appointed her as the first Reader in Chemical Microbiology, a permanent position. She died of cancer on 12 December 1948, a year after the university appointment.