John Stokes was the second son of The Reverend John Stokes and Elizabeth Arabella Franks . He was born in Cobham, Kent, and after a very full and interesting life, died at the age of 77 in Ewell, Surrey.

He recorded the events of his life in an autobiography of some 200 pages, which was published privately in 1994. The events of his life are briefly summarised in the autobiography, and are reproduced below:-

1825 Born Cobham, Kent
1843 Secont Lieutenant, Royal Engineers
1846-47 Seventh Zulu War, South Africa
1848 Married Henrietta de Villiers Maynard Grahamstown, South Africa
1850-51 Eighth Zulu War
1851 Birth of Charles Edward Stokes; Recalled to England.
1855 Captain, Royal Engineers; went to Crimea.
1856 Commission for the Danube under the Treaty of Paris.
1860 Major, Royal Engineers.
1861 Vice Consul in the Danube Delta.
1867 Lieutenant Colonel, RE. Companion of the Bath.
1872-73 Officer in Command, Royal Engineers, South Wales.
1875 British Commissioner in Egypt.
1876 British Representative on Board of Suez Canal Company.
1877 Knighted - Knight Commander of the Order of Bath.
1885 Major General, Royal Engineers.
1887 Lieutenant General, Royal Engineers. Vice Chairman, Suez Canal Board.
1902 Died in Ewell, Surrey.

As some sort of coincidence, Sir John Stokes encountered several of the ancestors of Lucy Lytton during his later years. These encounters included one with Lord Lytton in 1876, who was on his way to take up an appointment as Viceroy of India. Another encounter was with Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, Lucy's great grandfather. Stokes never commented on his meeting with Blunt, but Blunt in his diaries makes it plain that he thought Stokes was a bit of an old fogey.

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