Stephen Dewar Holden (23 August 1870 – 7 February 1918) was a British engineer, the son of the engineer James Holden and succeeded his father as locomotive superintendent of the Great Eastern Railway in 1908, a post he held until his retirement in 1912.

[1] Upon leaving school at the age of 16, he joined the Great Eastern Railway (GER) at their Stratford Works, London,[1] where his father had been Locomotive, Carriage and Wagon Superintendent since 1885.

[2] There he studied under his father for four years, following which he worked in the drawing office for 18 months; he then became an inspector in the running department.

[4] Repeat orders were placed for older designs, some of which dated back to James Holden's predecessor, T.W.

[5][6] There were some new designs, the most notable of which was the Class S69 4-6-0 of 1911, the first six-coupled express locomotives on the GER,[7] a total of 81 being built down to 1928;[8] under the LNER, some of these were sent to north-eastern Scotland.