STOKES, SIR (FREDERICK) WILFRID SCOTT K.B.E. (186o-1927), engineer and inventor, son of Scott Nas myth Stokes, was born in 186o at Liverpool. After some years in railway work he joined Ransomes and Rapier of Ipswich, be coming managing director and chairman. He was distinguished in many branches of engineering. His inventions, for which some fifty patents were granted, included improvements in sluice gates, breakdown cranes, railway, hydraulic, refrigerating and cement making machinery, ordnance and projectiles. He had a share in many notable engineering achievements at home and abroad, including the Manchester ship canal and the irrigation works in India, Egypt and the Sudan. He was responsible for the design of the sluice and lock gates, and he was present both at the open ing of the Assuan dam 1901 and of the Sennar dam 1926.
From 1915 until 1918 Stokes served on Ministry of Munitions inventions committees, and he was also chairman of the East Anglian and other munitions committees. In 1915 he acquired fame by the timely invention of the Stokes trench mortar and ammunition.
At great personal risk, without previous technical knowledge of explosives he perfected the shells of which more than twenty million rounds were used with deadly effect in the trenches and at Zeebrugge and elsewhere. He also promoted the invention of effec tive anti-aircraft shells. For his public services he was created K.B.E. in 1917. Stokes was president of the British Engineers' Association 1916-1918.
See Handbook of Stokes' Trench Mortar Equipment (1920) ; History of the Ministry of Munitions (1922) ; T. E. Lawrence, Revolt in the Desert (1927) ; W. Stokes, "Sluices and Lock Gates of the Nile Reservoir, Assuan," Proc. Inst. Civil Engineers (19o2–o3) ; "The Stokes Gun and Shell and their development," Engineering, June a8, 1918, "The Sennar Dam," Engineering, Jan. 22, 1926, "The late Sir W. Stokes," Engineering, Feb. II, 1927 ; "The Stokes Gun," Whitehall Gazette, Oct. 1919; "Sir W. Stokes," The Engineer, Feb. II, 1927.