Frederick Stokes

Rugby football Stokes played for Blackheath F.C. and was, for a time, captain. His five brothers also played for Blackheath. thumb Frederick Stokes and the first England Team, 1871, prior to the 1st international, v Scotland in Edinburgh. On 26 January 1871, when Stokes was 20 years old he, along with Benjamin Burns, represented Blackheath at a meeting of twenty-one rugby teams at the Pall Mall Restaurant.

Life outside of rugby and family Frederick followed his father into the legal profession becoming a solicitor. Frederick married Isabella Penn in 1877, the daughter of the famous marine engineer, John Penn. This was in the same year that his fellow rugby international and Old Rugbeian, Joseph Fletcher Green, married Isabella's sister Ellen. Thus, he and Joseph were brothers-in-law. They had a number of children including: Frederic Frank Stokes (1880), Alick (1882), Ellen Muriel Stokes (1888), Ellen Sybil Stokes (1891), Ellen Zoe Stokes (1898). Frederick Stokes died on 7 February 1929, at Inhurst House, Baughurst, Berkshire aged 78. Notably, all five of Frederick's brothers were keen sportsmen and all played rugby. One of his brothers, Lennard Stokes, also captained the England national rugby union team.