Roger Stevens was born 8 June 1906. In 1928 he entered the Consular Service and served in Buenos Aires, New York, Antwerp, Denver, and the Foreign Office. In 1931 he married Constance Hallam Hipwell (died 1976) and they had a son. Stevens held the following positions: Secretary of British Civil Secretariat, Washington, 1944-1946, at the Foreign Office, 1946-1948, Assistant Under-Secretary of State, Foreign Office, 1948-1951, British Ambassador Sweden, 1951-1954, British Ambassador to Persia, 1954-1958, Deputy Under-Secretary of State, Foreign Office, 1958-1963, and Advisor to First Secretary of State on Central Africa, 1963-1970. In 1962 Stevens published 'The Land of the Great Sophy' (reprinted 1971). He was also Vice-Chancellor of Leeds University, 1963-1970, Chairman of Yorks and Humberside Economic Planning Council, 1965-1970, a member of the Panel of Inquiry into Greater London Development Plan, 1970-1972, Chairman of the Committee on Mineral Planning Control, 1972-1974, and a member of the United Nations Administrative Tribunal, UNAT, 1972-1977. In 1977 he married Jane Chandler (nee Irving). Sir Roger Stevens died 20 February 1980.