Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/434

 include a biographical memoir (pp. 1–90) prepared mainly by his daughter, Mrs. Laurence Humphry.

There is a portrait by G. Lowes Dickinson in Pembroke College, and one by Sir Hubert von Herkomer at the Royal Society; marble busts by Hamo Thomycroft were presented to the Fitzwilliam Museum and to Pembroke College on the celebration of his jubilee as Lucasian professor in 1899, and a memorial medallion bust by the same sculptor is in Westminster Abbey.

 STOKES, JOHN (1825–1902), lieutenant-general, royal engineers, born at Cobham, Kent, on 17 June 1825, was second son in a family of three sons and three daughters of John Stokes (1773–1859), vicar of Cobham, Kent, by his wife Elizabeth Arabella Franks (1792–1868). Educated first at a private school at Ramsgate, then at the Rochester Proprietary School, Stokes passed into the Royal Military Academy at the head of the list in the summer of 1841. On leaving he was awarded the sword of honour and received a commission as second lieutenant in the royal engineers on 20 Dec. 1843. After professional instruction at Chatham, he was posted in February 1845 to the 9th company of royal sappers and miners at Woolwich, with which he proceeded in June to Grahamstown, South Africa. He was promoted lieutenant on 1 April 1846. In Cape Colony he spent five adventurous years, taking part in the Kaffir wars of 1846–7 and of 1850–1. In the first war he was deputy assistant quartermaster-general on the staff of Colonel Somerset commanding a column of the field force in Kaffraria. He was particularly thanked by the commander-in-chief. General Sir Peregrine Maitland [q. v.], for his conduct in the action of the Gwanga on 8 June 1846, and on 25 July following, when he opened communications through the heart of the enemy's country. In the war of 1850–1 he was again on the staff as a deputy assistant quartermaster-general to the 2nd division of the field force; he was in all the operations of the division from February to July 1851, and helped to organise and train some 3000 Hottentot levies. He was repeatedly mentioned in general orders, and was thanked by the commander-in-chief. Sir Harry Smith [q. v.].

Returning home from the Cape in October 1851, Stokes became instructor in surveying at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. He was promoted captain on 17 Feb. 1854, and in March 1855 was appointed to the Turkish contingent, a force of 20,000 men raised for service in the war with Russia and commanded by Sir Robert John Hussey Vivian [q. v.]. Stokes sailed at the end of July after raising and organising a nucleus for the contingent's corps of engineers, to be supplemented by Turks on the spot. He was given the command of the corps, and arriving in the Crimea in advance, witnessed the final assault on Sevastopol on 8 Sept. 1855. The Turkish contingent was sent to Kertch, where Stokes employed his corps in fortifying the place and in building huts for the troops during winter. When peace was concluded in March 1856 Stokes was made British commissioner for arranging the disbandment of the contingent. For this work he received the thanks of the government, and for his services in the Crimea a brevet-majority on 6 June 1856, the fourth class of the Mejidie, and the Turkish medal.

In July 1856 Stokes was nominated British commissioner on the European commission of the Danube, constituted under the treaty of Paris to improve the mouths and navigation of the Lower Danube. The commission, at first appointed for two years, became a permanent body, with headquarters at Galatz. Stokes's colleagues were often changed, but he held office for fifteen years, and thus came to exert a commanding influence on the commission's labours. By Stokes's advice (Sir) Charles Hartley was appointed engineer and the Sulina mouth of the Danube was selected for experimental treatment. The waterway was straightened and narrowed so as to confine and accelerate the current and thus concentrate its force to scour away the bar. In 1861 it was decided to replace the temporary constructions by permanent piers which should extend into the deeper water of the Black Sea. In order to obtain the necessary funds small loans were raised on the shipping dues, but these proved insufficient for the larger scheme. Stokes devoted himself to the finances and at the same time suppressed disorders on the river, and regulated the navigation and pilotage. The fixing of a new scale of dues involved a thorough investigation into the mode of measuring ships, as to which all nations then differed. In 1865 the 'Public Act' was promulgated, embodying the decision 