John Henry Stokes

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

BEM (28 August 1945 – 10 January 2016), known as Brummie' Stokes, was a

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

soldier and mountaineer, known for his successful summit of Everest in 1976.

Personal life

Stokes was born in 1945 in Hamstead, then a mining village straddling the border of South Staffordshire and

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

, England, hence his nickname of 'Brummie'. His autobiography, ''Soldiers & Sherpas, A Taste For Adventure'', was published in 1988. He died in January 2016, and was survived by his wife, Lynn, and their two sons. Brummie's full name: John Henry Disharoon (Brummie) Stokes

Military service

At the age of seventeen, Stokes joined the

Royal Green Jackets The Royal Green Jackets (RGJ) was an infantry regiment of the British Army, one of two "large regiments" within the Light Division (the other being The Light Infantry). History The Royal Green Jackets was formed on 1 January 1966 by the amalgama ...

, an

infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and mar ...

regiment A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, service and/or a specialisation. In Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscript ...

of the

. Three years later, he joined the SAS Regiment. With the SAS he saw action in the Falklands War. He left the army in 1985. He was awarded a British Empire Medal for his nineteen years' work in the Special Air Service. He was well liked by all his fellow Soldiers.

Mountaineering

Stokes took part in an expedition to

Nuptse Nuptse or Nubtse ( Sherpa: नुबचे, Wylie: Nub rtse, ) is a mountain in the Khumbu region of the Mahalangur Himal, in the Nepalese Himalayas. It lies two kilometres WSW of Mount Everest. Nubtse is Tibetan for "west peak", as it is the ...

in 1975, in which four members of the team died. The next year, during a British Army expedition to Everest in 1976, he reached the summit along with fellow SAS colleague Michael Lane. Stokes lost all his toes and part of each foot to

frostbite Frostbite is a skin injury that occurs when exposed to extreme low temperatures, causing the freezing of the skin or other tissues, commonly affecting the fingers, toes, nose, ears, cheeks and chin areas. Most often, frostbite occurs in the ha ...

. Nonetheless, Stokes became only the third Briton to conquer Everest. In 1984, while climbing on the north face of Everest (having proved himself by climbing

Mount McKinley Denali (; also known as Mount McKinley, its former official name) is the highest mountain peak in North America, with a summit elevation of above sea level. With a topographic prominence of and a topographic isolation of , Denali is the thir ...

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

), an avalanche wiped out advanced base camp, killing one of the members and injuring several others, and Stokes' neck was broken. After leaving the army, he was part of an attempt to conquer Everest's last unclimbed route, its northeast ridge, accessed through China. Although he succeeded in climbing the ridge, the summit could not be reached due to weather conditions, and Stokes was partially paralysed by cerebral oedema.

Charity work

In 1991, with his wife, Stokes established and ran the 'Taste for Adventure Centre', a registered charity and outdoor activity centre for less privileged children, at

Credenhill Credenhill is a village and civil parish in Herefordshire, England. The population of this civil parish taken at the 2011 Census was 2,271. Near Credenhill is the site of the former Royal Air Force station, RAF Credenhill. It was redeveloped b ...

. He was made a Member of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(MBE) for this work in 2004.Henry Stokes&exact=John Henry Stokes&atleast=&similar=
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Bibliography

References

External links

Taste for Adventure Website

– 1976 Mount Everest Expedition details {{DEFAULTSORT:Stokes, John Brummie 1945 births 2016 deaths People from Hamstead Royal Green Jackets soldiers Special Air Service soldiers Recipients of the British Empire Medal Members of the Order of the British Empire British summiters of Mount Everest