| Stephen Townesend | |
| Birth Date: | 1860 |
| Birth Place: | London, England |
| Death Date: | May 1914 |
| Death Place: | Colney Heath, England |
| Occupation: | Surgeon, actor, activist, writer |
Stephen Chapman Townesend (1860 – May 1914) was an English surgeon, stage actor, writer and anti-vivisectionist.
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. Townesend was a stage actor under the name Will Dennis and assisted the Amateur Dramatic Society of St Bartholomew's Hospital.[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]