John Heydon Stokes
Encyclopedia
Sir John Heydon Romaine Stokes, KBE
(23 July 1917 – 27 June 2003), was a British politician and a Conservative Party
Member of Parliament
.
, Stokes was educated at Haileybury
College and Queen's College, Oxford
. He stood for election as president of the Oxford University Conservative Association
on a platform of support for appeasement
and General Franco
; he was beaten by seven votes by future Prime Minister
Edward Heath
. He served as president of The Oxford Monarchists.
During World War II
Stokes served in the Royal Fusiliers, rising to the rank of Major. He took part in the expedition to Dakar
in 1940 and was wounded in North Africa
in 1943. From 1944-6 he served as military assistant to Major General Edward Spears in Beirut
and Damascus
.
After the war Stokes joined ICI
as a personnel officer, moving to British Celanese
in 1951 as personnel manager and to Courtaulds
in 1957 as deputy personnel manager. He was a partner in his own firm of personnel consultants, Clive and Stokes, from 1959 to 1980.
for the Conservatives. Two years later, he contested Hitchin
and was defeated by Shirley Williams. He was elected MP for Oldbury and Halesowen
at the 1970 general election
and for its successor seat, Halesowen and Stourbridge
in February 1974
, holding the latter until stepping down in 1992.
He was a very active backbencher and described as an "old-fashioned Conservative who trusted his constituents' instincts about what was right and wrong. He looked the part of the typical Conservative who graced the Commons benches in the years after (and before) the Second World War. His Conservatism seemed to belong to an earlier, simpler age. Yet the House, on the whole, loved him, and listened to him."]].
He had little time for 'professional politicians'. He argued that the back benches in parliament needed more army officers, "more squires, landowners, and country gentlemen." He attributed the decline of deference in society to the demise of the officer classes from positions of influence. He was also a firm defender of the hereditary principle in the Upper House and wrote the foreword to a Monday Club booklet by Lord Sudeley
entitled The Preservation of the House of Lords
. In 1975 Stokes spoke against a Private Members Bill to abolish hereditary titles, which was defeated.
During the crippling strikes at British Leyland in the 1970s, Stokes suggested in the House that it might help the troubles there if a few of the ringleaders were taken out and shot. He was a staunch supporter of hanging. He believed that television generally, and the BBC
in particular, had "corrupted our English civilisation, our taste and our morals".
In foreign affairs, Stokes was a supporter of Rhodesia
and of the Turkish Cypriots
. He served on parliamentary delegations to many countries; a delegate to the Council of Europe
and Western European Union
from 1983; in 1992, he led a Council of Europe delegation to observe the elections in Albania
.
Stokes was one of several MPs who assailed the Provisional Irish Republican Army
(PIRA) march through central London in June 1974 stating that it "was offensive to English people". In November 1974 he said that one of the principal concerns of the police at that time was control of entry to the UK mainland from both Northern Ireland
and the Republic of Ireland
, and he supported a call for the introduction of identity cards. He said that the nation's will was on trial: "a resolute and united nation can defeat this tiny handful of cruel and desperate men". In 1977, the PIRA was outlawed.
The following month, when the House of Commons
debated a measure to give the Church of England
clergy control over its doctrine and forms of worship, John Stokes said that he was a member of the Party yjat had its origins in "defence of Church and King". He said the measures had been got up by "a lot of trendy clergymen" who wanted to replace the traditional liturgy "with a lot of modern rubbish". An Anglo-Catholic, from 1985 to 1990, he was an elected member of the House of Laity within the General Synod of the Church of England
. He was also a member of the Prayer Book Society, a group dedicated to the preservation of the Book of Common Prayer
, and a Vice-President of the Royal Stuart Society
.
Describing a House of Commons debate on Capital Transfer Tax in January 1975 as "the Tories' finest hour", Stokes subsequently wrote to the Daily Telegraph stating that "the Party really believes in the family, the family firm or farm, the woodlands, our historic houses, the value of savings, etc., and above all, of course, personal freedom, against the all-devouring Socialist State". He served on the selecte committee dealing with the work of the Ombudsman
.
When Leon Brittan fell from grace during the Westland affair
, Stokes announced that Brittan should be replaced by "a red-blooded, red-faced Englishman, preferably from the landed interests." (Brittan's parents were Jewish immigrants).
In 1990, following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, he criticised women who were vocally lobbying the Government to do more to release their husbands being held hostage by Saddam Hussein, quoting Shakespeare and accusing them of "mewling and puking"
He was Chairman of the Primrose League
General Purposes Committee from 1971 to 1985.
. He was a main speaker at the Club's Halt Immigration Now! meeting in Westminster Central Hall
in September 1972, calling for a halt to all immigration, the repeal of the Race Relations Act, and the start of a full repatriation scheme, the meeting's formal resolution being delivered to the Prime Minister. He was one of the principal speakers at the Club's two-day conference in Birmingham in March 1975, the title of which was The Conservative Party and the Crisis in Britain.
, by whom he had one son and two daughters. Secondly, he married, 21 January 1989, Mrs Elsie F.Plowman (d. 1990). Thirdly, he married Ruth, widow of Sir Timothy Bligh (who had been secretary to Harold Macmillan
as Prime Minister), which marriage was dissolved in 1996. In the latter year he married fourthly Frances, widow of Lieutenant-Commander Donald Packham.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(23 July 1917 – 27 June 2003), was a British politician and a Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
.
Education and Early Career
The son of Victor Romaine Stokes, a stockjobberStockjobber
Stockjobbers were institutions that acted as market makers in the London Stock Exchange. Prior to "Big Bang" in 1986, every stock traded on the Exchange passed through a jobber's book, where they acted as intermediaries between stockbrokers, who were in turn not permitted to be market makers...
, Stokes was educated at Haileybury
Haileybury and Imperial Service College
Haileybury and Imperial Service College, , is a prestigious British independent school founded in 1862. The school is located at Hertford Heath, near Hertford, from central London, on of parkland occupied until 1858 by the East India College...
College and Queen's College, Oxford
The Queen's College, Oxford
The Queen's College, founded 1341, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Queen's is centrally situated on the High Street, and is renowned for its 18th-century architecture...
. He stood for election as president of the Oxford University Conservative Association
Oxford University Conservative Association
The Oxford University Conservative Association, or OUCA is a student political organisation founded in 1924 whose members are drawn from the University of Oxford...
on a platform of support for appeasement
Appeasement
The term appeasement is commonly understood to refer to a diplomatic policy aimed at avoiding war by making concessions to another power. Historian Paul Kennedy defines it as "the policy of settling international quarrels by admitting and satisfying grievances through rational negotiation and...
and General Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
; he was beaten by seven votes by future Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
Edward Heath
Edward Heath
Sir Edward Richard George "Ted" Heath, KG, MBE, PC was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and as Leader of the Conservative Party ....
. He served as president of The Oxford Monarchists.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Stokes served in the Royal Fusiliers, rising to the rank of Major. He took part in the expedition to Dakar
Battle of Dakar
The Battle of Dakar, also known as Operation Menace, was an unsuccessful attempt in September 1940 by the Allies to capture the strategic port of Dakar in French West Africa , which was under Vichy French control, and to install the Free French under General Charles de Gaulle there.-Background:At...
in 1940 and was wounded in North Africa
North African campaign
During the Second World War, the North African Campaign took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943. It included campaigns fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts and in Morocco and Algeria and Tunisia .The campaign was fought between the Allies and Axis powers, many of whom had...
in 1943. From 1944-6 he served as military assistant to Major General Edward Spears in Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
and Damascus
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...
.
After the war Stokes joined ICI
Imperial Chemical Industries
Imperial Chemical Industries was a British chemical company, taken over by AkzoNobel, a Dutch conglomerate, one of the largest chemical producers in the world. In its heyday, ICI was the largest manufacturing company in the British Empire, and commonly regarded as a "bellwether of the British...
as a personnel officer, moving to British Celanese
British Celanese
British Celanese was a chemical company based in England. Formed in 1918 it survived as an independent company until 1957 when it became a subsidiary of Courtaulds.-History:...
in 1951 as personnel manager and to Courtaulds
Courtaulds
Courtaulds was a United Kingdom-based manufacturer of fabric, clothing, artificial fibres, and chemicals.-Foundation:The Company was founded by George Courtauld and his cousin Peter Taylor in 1794 as a silk, crepe and textile business at Pebmarsh in north Essex trading as George Courtauld & Co...
in 1957 as deputy personnel manager. He was a partner in his own firm of personnel consultants, Clive and Stokes, from 1959 to 1980.
Political career
In 1964, Stokes contested GloucesterGloucester (UK Parliament constituency)
Gloucester is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was established in 1295 to return two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons but in 1885 representation was reduced to one member under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885...
for the Conservatives. Two years later, he contested Hitchin
Hitchin (UK Parliament constituency)
Hitchin was a parliamentary constituency in Hertfordshire which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1885 until it was abolished for the 1983 general election....
and was defeated by Shirley Williams. He was elected MP for Oldbury and Halesowen
Oldbury and Halesowen (UK Parliament constituency)
Oldbury and Halesowen was a parliamentary constituency in the West Midlands, which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1950 until it was abolished for the February 1974 general election....
at the 1970 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1970
The United Kingdom general election of 1970 was held on 18 June 1970, and resulted in a surprise victory for the Conservative Party under leader Edward Heath, who defeated the Labour Party under Harold Wilson. The election also saw the Liberal Party and its new leader Jeremy Thorpe lose half their...
and for its successor seat, Halesowen and Stourbridge
Halesowen and Stourbridge (UK Parliament constituency)
Halesowen and Stourbridge was a parliamentary constituency in the West Midlands, which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from February 1974 until it was abolished for the 1997 general election....
in February 1974
United Kingdom general election, February 1974
The United Kingdom's general election of February 1974 was held on the 28th of that month. It was the first of two United Kingdom general elections held that year, and the first election since the Second World War not to produce an overall majority in the House of Commons for the winning party,...
, holding the latter until stepping down in 1992.
He was a very active backbencher and described as an "old-fashioned Conservative who trusted his constituents' instincts about what was right and wrong. He looked the part of the typical Conservative who graced the Commons benches in the years after (and before) the Second World War. His Conservatism seemed to belong to an earlier, simpler age. Yet the House, on the whole, loved him, and listened to him."]].
He had little time for 'professional politicians'. He argued that the back benches in parliament needed more army officers, "more squires, landowners, and country gentlemen." He attributed the decline of deference in society to the demise of the officer classes from positions of influence. He was also a firm defender of the hereditary principle in the Upper House and wrote the foreword to a Monday Club booklet by Lord Sudeley
Merlin Hanbury-Tracy, 7th Baron Sudeley
Merlin Charles Sainthill Hanbury-Tracy, 7th Baron Sudeley, FSA is a British peer, author and veteran right-wing activist. In 1941, at the age of three, he succeeded his first cousin once removed, the 6th Lord Sudeley, to the Barony of Sudeley and until the House of Lords Act 1999 sat in that body...
entitled The Preservation of the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
. In 1975 Stokes spoke against a Private Members Bill to abolish hereditary titles, which was defeated.
During the crippling strikes at British Leyland in the 1970s, Stokes suggested in the House that it might help the troubles there if a few of the ringleaders were taken out and shot. He was a staunch supporter of hanging. He believed that television generally, and the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
in particular, had "corrupted our English civilisation, our taste and our morals".
In foreign affairs, Stokes was a supporter of Rhodesia
Rhodesia
Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...
and of the Turkish Cypriots
Turkish Cypriots
Turkish Cypriots are the ethnic Turks and members of the Turkish-speaking ethnolinguistic community of the Eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus. The term is used to refer explicitly to the indigenous Turkish Cypriots, whose Ottoman Turkish forbears colonised the island in 1571...
. He served on parliamentary delegations to many countries; a delegate to the Council of Europe
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...
and Western European Union
Western European Union
The Western European Union was an international organisation tasked with implementing the Modified Treaty of Brussels , an amended version of the original 1948 Treaty of Brussels...
from 1983; in 1992, he led a Council of Europe delegation to observe the elections in Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
.
Stokes was one of several MPs who assailed the Provisional Irish Republican Army
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation whose aim was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a socialist republic within a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...
(PIRA) march through central London in June 1974 stating that it "was offensive to English people". In November 1974 he said that one of the principal concerns of the police at that time was control of entry to the UK mainland from both Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
and the Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
, and he supported a call for the introduction of identity cards. He said that the nation's will was on trial: "a resolute and united nation can defeat this tiny handful of cruel and desperate men". In 1977, the PIRA was outlawed.
The following month, when the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
debated a measure to give the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
clergy control over its doctrine and forms of worship, John Stokes said that he was a member of the Party yjat had its origins in "defence of Church and King". He said the measures had been got up by "a lot of trendy clergymen" who wanted to replace the traditional liturgy "with a lot of modern rubbish". An Anglo-Catholic, from 1985 to 1990, he was an elected member of the House of Laity within the General Synod of the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
. He was also a member of the Prayer Book Society, a group dedicated to the preservation of the Book of Common Prayer
Book of Common Prayer
The Book of Common Prayer is the short title of a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion, as well as by the Continuing Anglican, "Anglican realignment" and other Anglican churches. The original book, published in 1549 , in the reign of Edward VI, was a product of the English...
, and a Vice-President of the Royal Stuart Society
Royal Stuart Society
The Royal Stuart Society, founded in 1926, is the senior monarchist organisation and the foremost Jacobite and Legitimist body in the United Kingdom...
.
Describing a House of Commons debate on Capital Transfer Tax in January 1975 as "the Tories' finest hour", Stokes subsequently wrote to the Daily Telegraph stating that "the Party really believes in the family, the family firm or farm, the woodlands, our historic houses, the value of savings, etc., and above all, of course, personal freedom, against the all-devouring Socialist State". He served on the selecte committee dealing with the work of the Ombudsman
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman comprises the offices of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration and the Health Service Commissioner for England...
.
When Leon Brittan fell from grace during the Westland affair
Westland affair
The Westland affair was a political scandal for the British Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher in 1986. The argument was a result of differences of opinion within the government as to the future of the United Kingdom helicopter industry. The struggling Westland company, Britain's last...
, Stokes announced that Brittan should be replaced by "a red-blooded, red-faced Englishman, preferably from the landed interests." (Brittan's parents were Jewish immigrants).
In 1990, following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, he criticised women who were vocally lobbying the Government to do more to release their husbands being held hostage by Saddam Hussein, quoting Shakespeare and accusing them of "mewling and puking"
He was Chairman of the Primrose League
Primrose League
The Primrose League was an organisation for spreading Conservative principles in Great Britain. It was founded in 1883 and active until the mid 1990s...
General Purposes Committee from 1971 to 1985.
Monday Club
John Stokes was a long-standing (joined prior to 1970) member of the Conservative Monday ClubConservative Monday Club
The Conservative Monday Club is a British pressure group "on the right-wing" of the Conservative Party.-Overview:...
. He was a main speaker at the Club's Halt Immigration Now! meeting in Westminster Central Hall
Westminster Central Hall
The Westminster Central Hall or Methodist Central Hall is a Methodist church in the City of Westminster. It occupies the corner of Tothill Street and Storeys Gate just off Victoria Street in London, near the junction with The Sanctuary next to the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre and facing...
in September 1972, calling for a halt to all immigration, the repeal of the Race Relations Act, and the start of a full repatriation scheme, the meeting's formal resolution being delivered to the Prime Minister. He was one of the principal speakers at the Club's two-day conference in Birmingham in March 1975, the title of which was The Conservative Party and the Crisis in Britain.
Personal life
Stokes married firstly, on 23 December 1939, Barbara (d. 1988), younger daughter of R. E. Yorke of WellingboroughWellingborough
Wellingborough is a market town and borough in Northamptonshire, England, situated some from the county town of Northampton. The town is situated on the north side of the River Nene, most of the older town is sited on the flanks of the hills above the river's current flood plain...
, by whom he had one son and two daughters. Secondly, he married, 21 January 1989, Mrs Elsie F.Plowman (d. 1990). Thirdly, he married Ruth, widow of Sir Timothy Bligh (who had been secretary to Harold Macmillan
Harold Macmillan
Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC was Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 January 1957 to 18 October 1963....
as Prime Minister), which marriage was dissolved in 1996. In the latter year he married fourthly Frances, widow of Lieutenant-Commander Donald Packham.
Publications
- Stokes, John, Crusader '80, in the Primrose LeaguePrimrose LeagueThe Primrose League was an organisation for spreading Conservative principles in Great Britain. It was founded in 1883 and active until the mid 1990s...
Gazette, vol.84, no.6, Nov/Dec 1980 edition, London. - Stokes, John, The State of the Nation, in the Primrose League Gazette, vol.86, no.2, April 1982 edition, London.
- Stokes, John, The Falklands Spirit, in the Primrose League Gazette, vol.86, no.5, Nov/Dec 1982 edition, London.
- Stokes, John, The Church and the Bomb, in the Primrose League Gazette, vol.87, no.3, July 1983 edition, London.
- Stokes, John, Politics and The Church, in the Primrose League Gazette, vol.89, no.1, April/May 1985 edition, London.
- Stokes, John, An Issue Greater Than Party Advantage, in the Primrose League Gazette, vol.90, no.1, Feb/March 1986 edition, London.
- Stokes, John, A Long and Glorious History, in the Primrose League Gazette, vol.90, no.2, June/July 1986 edition, London.
- Stokes, John, The Condition of The People, in the Primrose League Gazette, vol.91, no.1, March/April 1987 edition, London.
- Stokes, John, The Place of the Book of Common Prayer in the Fabric of The Nation, in the Primrose League Gazette, vol.91, no.3, Nov/Dec 1987 edition, London.
- Stokes, John, A Quiet and Undemonstrable People, in the Primrose League Gazette, vol.92, no.1, April/May 1988 edition, London.