Sir Gabriel Stokes (7 July 184922 October 1920) was an Irish civil servant and colonial administrator of the

Indian Civil Service The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled over more than 300 million p ...

. He acted as the

Governor of Madras This is a list of the governors, agents, and presidents of colonial Madras, initially of the English East India Company, up to the end of British colonial rule in 1947. English Agents In 1639, the grant of Madras to the English was finalized be ...

between February–March 1906.

Family

Gabriel Stokes was born on 7July 1849 at Ballyard,

Tralee Tralee ( ; ga, Trá Lí, ; formerly , meaning 'strand of the Lee River') is the county town of County Kerry in the south-west of Ireland. The town is on the northern side of the neck of the Dingle Peninsula, and is the largest town in Count ...

, County Kerry, Ireland and was educated at

Kilkenny College Kilkenny College is an independent Church of Ireland co-educational day and boarding secondary school located in Kilkenny, in the South-East of Ireland. It is the largest co-educational boarding school in Ireland. The school's students are mainly ...

Armagh Armagh ( ; ga, Ard Mhacha, , "Macha's height") is the county town of County Armagh and a city in Northern Ireland, as well as a civil parish. It is the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland – the seat of the Archbishops of Armagh, the ...

and

Trinity College, Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

. The son of Henry Stokes, the

county surveyor A county surveyor is a public official in the United Kingdom and the United States. United Kingdom Webb & Webb describe the increasing chaos that began to prevail within this same period in field of county surveying in England and Wales, with c ...

of Kerry, Stokes was born into a prominent family of academics which had been associated for

for several generations. His grandfather was Whitley Stokes, a Regius Professor of Physic at Trinity College, Dublin, his great-grandfather Gabriel Stokes (1732-1806), a Professor of Mathematics at

Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God th ...

and his great-great-grandfather, also Gabriel Stokes, a Deputy Surveyor General of Ireland. His older brother

Henry Stokes Sir Henry Edward Stokes (23 July 1841 – 20 October 1926) was an Irish civil servant of the Indian civil service who served as a member of the Madras Legislative Council from 1888 to 1893. Early life and education Stokes was born on 23 July ...

was also a prominent member of the Indian civil service. His great grand-uncle was the mathematician John Stokes.

Indian civil service

Stokes cleared the Indian civil service examinations and qualified for the civil service in 1871. In India, he served as a member of the executive council of the Governor of Madras from 1896 to 1906 and from 1906 to 1907.

Governor of Madras

Gabriel Stokes acted as the Governor of Madras from 15February 1906 to 28March 1906. During his tenure, the Asian Petroleum Company began its work in Madras.

Death

He died at his home, 72 Morehampton Road in Dublin, on 22October 1920.

Honours

In the

1909 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1909 were appointments by King Edward VII to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by members of the British Empire. They were announced on 5 January 1909. By Special Statutes of the Order of the Star ...

, Stokes was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India for his services to the Crown.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stokes, Gabriel 1849 births 1920 deaths People educated at Kilkenny College Knights Commander of the Order of the Star of India Members of the Madras Legislative Council Governors of Madras