Stephen Townesend (surgeon)

Stephen Townesend FRCS
Townesend in 1899
Born	1860 London, England
Died	May 1914 Colney Heath, England
Occupation(s)	Surgeon, actor, activist, writer
Spouse	Frances Hodgson Burnett ​ ​ (m. 1900; div. 1902)​

Stephen Chapman Townesend^[a] FRCS (1860 – May 1914) was an English surgeon, stage actor, writer and anti-vivisectionist.

Biography

Stephen Chapman Townesend was the son of a rector in London. He was educated at St Bartholomew's Hospital and the University of Edinburgh.^[1] He qualified M.R.C.S. in 1883 and F.R.C.S. in 1887. He was surgeon on the Orient Steamship Company's line, house surgeon at St Mark's Hospital and at Birmingham General Hospital.^[1] Townesend was a stage actor under the name Will Dennis and assisted the Amateur Dramatic Society of St Bartholomew's Hospital.^[1][2]

In 1900, he married Frances Hodgson Burnett in Genoa.^[3] He was involved with the stage adaptations of her novels. They divorced two years later.^[4] Townesend was an anti-vivisectionist, who was described as loving animals more than people.^[5]

Townesend died in Colney Heath from pneumonia in May 1914.^[1][6]

Selected publications

• A Thorough-Bred Mongrel: The Tale of a Dog, Told by a Dog to Lovers of Dogs (1900)
• Dr. Tuppy (1912)

Notes

1. His second name has also been cited as Townsend

References

1. "Townesend, Stephen Chapman (1860 - 1914)". Royal College of Surgeons of England. Retrieved 14 August 2021.
2. "Who Was Who. v.1 (1897/1916)". p. 712
3. "Stephen Townsend Weds Mrs. Burnett". San Francisco Call, Volume 87, Number 105, 15 March 1900.
4. Gerzina, Gretchen (2004), Frances Hodgson Burnett: The Unexpected Life of the Author of The Secret Garden. Rutgers University Press. p. 229. ISBN 0-8135-3382-1
5. "Up The Garden Path". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 August 2021.
6. "Stephen Townesend Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 August 2021.