BORN ASCENSION ISLAND, 1880. SON OF MAJOR, EDWARD BARRINGTON STEPHENS (1850-1918), & EDITH MARIA STEPHENS (1857-1932), OF 49 PARK GROVE, HULL, AND 8 HINDERWELL STREET, HULL (PROBATE ADDRESS). HIS FATHER WAS A FORMER ROYAL MARINE MAJOR, A FOUNDER OF THE HULL SCOUT MOVEMENT AND A LEADING RECRUITER AT THE PRYME STREET OFFICE, HULL. HE DIED ON 27/12/1918. HIS FATHERS DEATH WAS REPORTED IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL ON THE 30TH DECEMBER 1918, WITH HIS PHOTOGRAPH. *
NASSAU WORKED AS AN ACCOUNTANT’S CLERK FOR HULL’S HODGSON & HARRIS, AND THEN AS A COMMERCIAL CLERK FOR HELLYERS STEAM TRAWLER COMPANY. HIS LIFE REVOLVED AROUND ST AUGUSTINE’S CHURCH, HEDON, WHERE HE RAISED CHURCH FUNDS AND RAN THE LOCAL CHURCH LAD’S BRIGADE.
HE WAS ALSO A FORMER TERRITORIAL – A LANCE CORPORAL IN THE EAST RIDING YEOMANRY. HE JOINED THE 1/4TH EAST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT AT THE OUTBREAK OF WAR. COMMISSIONED AS SECOND LIEUTENANT, ON 22/07/1915. POSTED TO FRANCE IN JANUARY 1916, NASSAU TRANSFERRED TO THE 150TH MACHINE GUN CORPS ON 04/02/1916.
HE WAS WOUNDED BY INDIRECT FIRE IN THE TRENCHES NEAR KEMMEL AND DIED OF WOUNDS THE NEXT DAY AT THE 1ST CANADIAN CLEARING STATION, ON 01/06/1916. HE WAS BURIED AT BAILLEUL COMMUNAL CEMETERY, AGED 36.
HE LEFT £98 IN HIS WILL TO HIS BROTHER IN LAW, JOSEPH HALL, MARRIED TO HIS SISTER, LILY.
HE WAS DESCRIBED AS A PERFECT TYPE OF SOLDIER AND GENTLEMAN. HE IS COMMEMORATED ON THE WW1 MEMMORIAL AT ST JOHNS, NEWLAND, HULL
The war took its toll on the Stephens family. On 8 August 1918, Private Joseph Hall, Lily’s husband, was missing in action in Italy. He was declared dead on 8 August 1919.72 Major Edward Barrington Stephens, Nassau’s father, who had reenlisted and worked as a recruiting officer at the Pryme Street station died 27 December 1918. After the death of Major Stephens, Nassau’s mother, Edith Maria Stephens, and his sister Lily moved first to Bridlington, Yorkshire, and then to Falmouth, Cornwall. Both his brothers fought with the British Expeditionary Force in German East Africa. Edward W. D. was a lieutenant in the Northern Rhodesian Police. Francis Trant was a major in the King’s African Rifles. He was awarded the Military Cross in 191776 and an OBE (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in 1919.  He went on to be chief commissioner of police in Nyasaland from 1920 to 1939. On the eve of another war, Nassau’s sister, Edith Dulcie Jane Bingham and her family were living in Sheffield, Yorkshire, in 1939. Her husband, Horace, worked as an insurance agent.
For more information, please see the following article -Â https://bifhsgo.ca/upload/custom/cccs/1516934702_Stephens%202nd%20Lieutenant%20Nassau%20Barrington%203%20Dec%202017.pdf
