Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Family Group:

Six: Private G. W. Stokes, Royal Fusiliers and Air Raid Precautions
1914 Star, with clasp (14732 Pte G. W. Stokes. 4/R. Fus.); British War and Victory Medals (14732 Sjt. G. W. Stokes. R. Fus.); Defence Medal; Belgium, Kingdom, Veteran’s Cross, gilt, with bronze laurel leaf emblem on riband; France, Third Republic, Somme Commemorative Medal, bronze, mounted as worn, good very fine

Pair: attributed to J. D. Stokes
1939-45 Star; War Medal 1939-45, mounted as worn, good very fine (8) £180-220

George Wallace Stokes was born in Lambeth, London, in June 1892, and attested for the Royal Fusiliers prior to 1911. He served during the Great War on the Western Front with the 4th Battalion Royal Fusiliers - his battalion was one of the first to embark for the Western Front; he arrived with them on the Continent on 13 August 1914, as part of the 9th Brigade, 3rd Division, II Corps, and advanced with them as far as the town of Mons, just over the Belgian border, reaching the outskirts of the town on 22 August. That morning a patrol from the 4th Dragoon Guards had encountered a German picquet on the road leading to Mons and, firing upon it, had driven it off - the first shot of the War fired by the British on the Continent. Further reconnaissances carried out that day by British Cavalry units established the fact that the German forces in great numbers were present in the vicinity, and the entire British Expeditionary Force was ordered to advance forward to take up a position on the banks of the Mons-Condé Canal. Following a trying march over cobbled roads, Cox’s Battalion reached the canal on the afternoon of 22 August. As would soon become apparent, the canal formed a far from ideal defensive line. Forming a broad loop as it skirted around Mons it thus created a salient, which was ill-adapted to a prolonged and serious defence. Two bridges crossed the canal here, a road bridge and a rail bridge; if the Germans were able to capture these bridges then the British Expeditionary Force would be surrounded and would have to evacuate their entire front line. ‘B’ and ‘C’ Companies, 4th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, were positioned at this critical point and were responsible for the embankment and the two bridges.
The following morning, Sunday 23 August, the Germans launched their attack at 09:00 hours, as four battalions were suddenly flung at the railway bridge - the first infantry attack of the Great War. Despite the gallantry shown by the Battalion’s machine-gunners, especially Lieutenant M. J. Dease and Private S. F. Godley, casualties mounted steadily, and at 14:00 hours the orders came for the Battalion to withdraw. They had to move from their dangerous position across 250 yards of exposed open ground which was being swept by shrapnel and machine-gun fire. Private Godley alone remained at his gun, maintaining a covering fire until all the Battalion had been successfully evacuated with minimal additional casualties. For their supreme valour both Dease and Godley were subsequently awarded the Victoria Cross- the first V.C.s awarded during the Great War.

Stokes continued with the 4th Battalion, and served through the retreat from Mons. He was promoted to Sergeant before transferring to the Machine Gun Corps on 30 January 1916, immediately on formation of the M.G.C., and was discharged on 15 February 1919. He served during the Second World War as an A.R.P. Warden, living at 80, Firhill Road, Lewisham, and died in 1973.

John Donald Stokes was born in 1920, the son of George Wallace Stokes and his wife Annie. He served during the Second World War, and died in Greenwich in 1986.