He became a Clerk in the House of Lords in 1935, but left in 1938 to become a member of the Runciman Mission to Czechoslovakia.
[2] From 1947 to 1949 he was Principal Private Secretary to Herbert Morrison as Lord President of the Council.
[2] From 1955 to 1961 he was Secretary for Appointments to the Prime Minister, serving first Sir Anthony Eden and then Harold Macmillan.
In 1941 David Stephens married Clemency Gore Browne.
[9] After the death of his first wife in 1966,[10] Sir David Stephens married Charlotte Manisty in 1967.