Ships
- HMAS Vendetta (D69) Captain from 29 September 1942
Charles John Stephenson was an officer of the Royal Australian Navy, known in command as C. J. Stephenson. He joined the Navy as a cadet on 1 January 1924. He became a midshipman on 1 May 1928, an acting sub-lieutenant on 1 September 1930, and a sub-lieutenant on 16 March 1931. Promotion to lieutenant followed on 16 May 1933. On 16 May 1941 he was made lieutenant commander, the rank he held through his wartime sea commands.
His first command was the Admiralty V-class destroyer Vendetta, pennant D69. Earlier commanding officers of the ship included Glen Loftus Cant. Stephenson took her on 1 September 1941, as she was leaving a long spell in the Mediterranean for refit. On 4 September she arrived at Port Said. He brought her through the Suez Canal and east by way of Bombay. On 13 November 1941 Vendetta reached Singapore from Penang and was taken in hand by the Singapore Harbour Board. On 29 November 1941 he turned the ship over to W. G. Whitting.
Whitting was in command when the war with Japan opened. Vendetta was still immobilised in the Singapore dockyard. In February 1942 she was towed clear, and the powerless ship reached Melbourne only in April, after the long haul across to Western Australia and through the Great Australian Bight. A refit then kept her in Australian hands into the spring. The work armed her more as an escort, with stronger anti-aircraft and anti-submarine weapons than she had carried as a fleet destroyer.
On 29 September 1942 Vendetta recommissioned at Melbourne with Stephenson again as captain, still a lieutenant commander. She moved on to Sydney for the last of the refit, which was finished in the middle of December. On 30 December 1942 she left Sydney for Brisbane in company with the United States light cruiser Phoenix and the Australian destroyer Warramunga. Through January 1943 he had her based at Brisbane on escort duty in Queensland waters. On 10 February she sailed for Milne Bay with transports. He left the ship at the end of March 1943.
Command of Vendetta then passed in turn to David Logan, John Plunkett-Cole, Jack Mesley, William Cook, Gilbert Gordon, and William Tapp. Stephenson himself returned to a destroyer bridge late in the war, still as a lieutenant commander. He commanded Napier from 15 September 1944 to 7 October 1944, and on 8 October he took command of Nepal.
He remained in the Royal Australian Navy after the war. He was promoted commander on 31 December 1948. On 5 June 1952 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. He retired on 13 June 1960.