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Lieutenant General Sir John Stokes

Lieutenant General Sir John Stokes (1825–1902) was a British engineer, soldier, diplomat and vice-president of the Suez Canal Company in the 19th Century. His career spanned the War of the Axe in South Africa and the Crimean War, as well as engineering and diplomatic efforts involved in opening the mouths of the Danube to navigation. The last 25 years of his life were immersed in the British intervention in Egypt and acquisition and management of a 40 percent share of the Suez Canal.

Biography

Childhood and education

Stokes was born on 11 June 1825 in Cobham, Kent, the second son of the Reverend John Stokes (himself a graduate in mathematics from Oxford University) and Elizabeth Arabella Franks. He was one of six children, of whom two girls died of scarlet fever in childhood. After a private secondary education, he entered the Royal Military Academy, where he majored in military engineering.

Later life

John Stokes married Henrietta Georgina Maynard in Grahamstown, South Africa, in 1849. Together they had eight children: four sons and four daughters. He was a keen sportsman, playing cricket, tennis and croquet, as well as shooting. Stokes' family lived with him in Galatz (now Galati) in Romania for the duration of his work on the Danube River Commission from 1856 to 1871.

Stokes' wife, Etta, had a stroke in 1877 and another in 1880. After the second stroke, she was speechless, helpless and under constant care of several servants until her death in 1893. For some of this period, Stokes had a woman "dear friend" living at his home, Miss Isabella Ranken. She and her sister Kate were occasionally mentioned in Stokes’ autobiography, first in 1874. Isabella was at Sir John’s home for the 1881 census, and he visited her father in Scotland in the autumn of the same year. They travelled together in France in 1887, where they were the guests of Charles de Lesseps, and again from London to Paris in 1891. She continued to Japan, not returning until 1896. She is one of the last individuals mentioned in his memoir, looking after Stokes’ daughter Edith at his home during an illness in November 1899. Isabella was at his daughter Constance's home in Wigan for both the 1891 and 1901 censuses and attended Sir John’s funeral in 1902.

Family

John Stokes’ brother Francis and sons Charles and Francis Herbert emigrated to South Australia in the 1870s. Another son, Arthur, had a birth disfigurement and was sent to Ceylon as a partner in a coffee plantation.

Death

Sir John Stokes died suddenly of a stroke on 17 November 1902 in Ewell, Surrey. He left the typescript of an incomplete autobiography which was discovered in Adelaide, Australia, and published privately in 1994.

Professional life

Military career

Shortly after graduation, he was ordered to the Cape Colony in South Africa, where he spent six years, much of it in service during the War of the Axe. In 1851 he was demobilized to England, where he was an instructor at Woolwich Arsenal until the outbreak of the Crimean War. After some delay, he was posted to the Crimea in early 1855, having personally approached the Secretary of War (Lord Panmure) to establish an engineers’ column. Funding was arranged after a direct approach to the assistant Secretary of the Treasury (Sir Charles Trevelyan). The column included hospital, photography and printing wagons. Once in the Crimea, he witnessed (but was not involved in) combat. He was particularly affected by the sight of the untended wounded. After a peace was negotiated with Russia, he had to dispose of much equipment and several thousand horses.

Danube Commission

With the end of the Crimean War, Stokes was called into the British Embassy in Constantinople and asked to be the British representative on a new European Commission for the Danube. He accepted the offer and spent until 1871 working with various European representatives and particularly the engineer Charles Hartley. The objective was the opening of the river to navigation, requiring works at the mouths of the river. Based in Galatz (now Galati), Stokes was involved not only with the engineering aspect, but also with the diplomatic side of the commission. Other delegates included Austrian, German, Turkish, Russian and Sardinian diplomats. One of the problems he dealt with was the establishment of an international standard for computation of a vessel’s tonnage. During his fifteen-year stay, he was also appointed Vice-Consul for the British Government and held regular Anglican services in his home.

Tonnage Commission

At the end of his posting on the Danube, Stokes had to negotiate a tonnage law for the Suez Canal, at that time a part of the Ottoman Empire. His proposal was adopted as Turkey’s tonnage law. He was consulted by Lord Derby on 1 April 1875 about theSuez Canal Company’s refusal to implement the new tonnage laws, which he recommended be enforced by military action. Egyptian troops under the command of American General Charles Pomeroy Stone occupied the canal, at which stage Ferdinand de Lesseps (President of the Suez Canal Company) capitulated.

Suez shares

On 18 November 1875, Stokes was called to advise the British Cabinet and Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli on the question of purchasing the Khedive of Cairo’s shares in the Suez Canal Stokes submitted a letter in the affirmative and on the 24th, the British government proceeded with the purchase for 4 million pounds. Early in December 1875, Stokes was asked to return to Egypt to investigate the state of the country’s finances, as it was on the brink of default with loans taken out by the Egyptian government. This work was done in partnership with Stephen Cave, and they co-authored a report to the UK government. As Stephen Cave spoke little French, Stokes was burdened with much of the oral communication with the Khedive. Stokes repeatedly urged the Khedive to discontinue his ruinous wars with Ethiopia. Cave and Stokes proposed a scheme to improve the Egyptian finances, but were recalled to London.

Canal Company

After his recall to London, Stokes was appointed a director of Suez Canal Company, along with Rivers Wilson and a person he called only “Mr Standen”. Stokes was to serve as a director and later Vice President of the company for much of the remaining 26 years of his life. He was awarded a Knight-Commandership of the Bath (KCB) on 14 August 1877. In 1878, Stokes declined an invitation by de Lesseps to join the board of a Panama Canal company.

Alexandria harbour

Sir John Stokes was called to Alexandria, Egypt, in 1879 to negotiate the improvement of the harbour and determine tolls for the use thereof. A secret commission from the British Foreign Office was to convince the Egyptians of the desirability of opening Alexandria Harbour to allow safe entry at night or during bad weather.The Egyptians were wary of improving access, lest foreign warships be able to sail into the harbour unimpeded. Stokes convinced them of the desirability of the action and arranged for the merchants of the city to (ultimately) pay for the improvements. The committee recommendations were, however, shelved. This was due to the Al Urabi insurrection, directed at foreign interference in Egyptian affairs.

Channel tunnel

The construction of a rail tunnel between England and France was the subject of enquiry of a committee in early 1882. Stokes sat as a member of that committee. Work was under way, but despite his enthusiasm for the technical aspects of project, Stokes was strongly against it on strategic grounds. His opposition stalled the project, and construction was not completed until more than a hundred years later.

British invasion

Apart from his Suez commitments, Stokes was deeply involved in the planning of the British invasion of Egypt in 1882, in his role as Deputy Adjutant-General. At the behest of the Commander-in-Chief, HRH the Duke of Cambridge, Sir John Stokes was promoted to Major-General in 1884. In 1887, he became Vice-President of the Suez Canal Company and also was a director of the Roburite Explosives Company (later part of ICI) and the Lady Strangford Hospital in Port Said. In the same year, he was promoted to Lieutenant-General.

At the request of Prime Minister Lord Rosebery, Stokes attended the opening of the railway line toIsmailia in 1893 as the Queen’s representative. Travelling by sea to Egypt, he met Wilfrid Scawen Blunt and had a wide-ranging discussion of strategic issues, later published in Blunt's diaries. While in Egypt, he was quartered on HMS_Dreadnought_(1875) and several times had broadsides fired to impress the new Khedive. In Cairo, he was accommodated at the residence of Lord Cromer and made acquaintance with Lord Kitchener.

Stokes attended Ferdinand de Lesseps' funeral in Paris in 1894. His involvement with the Suez company continued through the late 1890s, including attending the funeral of de Lesseps' successor as President of the Suez Canal Company in 1896. At this funeral, he delivered a eulogy in French. In turn, Ferdinand de Lesseps' son, Charles, attended Stokes' funeral in 1902.

References

• Sir John Stokes' autobiography, published privately by K.M.Stokes, Adelaide, 1994. download pdf
• Sir John Stokes' obituary, New York Times 18 November 1902 [1]
• A Romanian-language description of the works executed by Hartley and Stokes [2]