Ralph Shelton Griffin Stokes, soldier and mine manager, interrupted his private education to come
to South Africa to take part in the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) as a trooper in
Paget's Horse. After the war he was employed by H. Eckstein and Company as a
sampler and assistant surveyor on the Crown Reef Mine. A part-time position as
mining editor of the Rand Daily Mail enabled him to continue his studies and to
tour the mines of the British Empire, leading to a series of articles in the
newspaper during June 1906 to September 1907. He also wrote a report entitled Malay tin-fields; mining position broadly
reviewed (Singapore, 1906, 40pp.) and a substantial book, Mines and minerals of the British Empire
(1908, 403pp). In 1907 he again joined H. Eckstein, assisted with the
valuation of the New Modderfontein Gold Mining Company, and worked on the
Robinson Mine, Crown Mines, and in Eckstein's administration. He presented
specimens to the museum of the Geological Society of South Africa in 1907. A
few years later, in collaboration with J.E. Thomas*, G.O. Smart*, W.R. Dowling*,
H.A. White*, E.H. Johnson*, W.A. Caldecott*, A. McA. Johnston*, and C.O. Schmitt*,
he wrote A textbook of Rand metallurgical
practice (London, 1912, 2 vols).
From 1912 to 1914 Stokes worked in the United States as a field engineer for the
International Nickel Company of New York. During World War I (1914-1918) he was
on active service in France as Controller of Mines, with the rank of Colonel.
Thereafter he was chief engineer of the Expeditionary Forces fighting against the Bolsheviks in north Russia
during 1918-1919. In recognition of his work during the war he was awarded the
Military Cross (MC, 1916), the Distinguished Service Order (DSO, 1917) and the
Order of the British Empire (OBE, 1919). In 1920 he returned to South Africa and
became superintendent of mines and assistant general manager of De Beers
Consolidated Mines at Kimberley. In 1928 he returned to Johannesburg to join
his old firm, which had meanwhile become The Central Mining and Investment
Corporation, as consulting engineer and technical director. He became a
director in 1944 and served on the board until 1959. During World War II
(1939-1945) he served in the Western Desert as chief engineer in charge of the
construction of airfields with Montgomery's Eighth Army, attained the rank of
Brigadier, and was honoured as Commander of the Order of the British Empire
(CBE, 1942).
Stokes served on the council of the Geological Society of
South Africa from 1929 to 1939 and as its president in 1934. His presidential
address, 'The geological surveys and societies of the world', was published in
the Proceedings of the Geological Society
of South Africa (1935, pp. xxiii-xlii). He was a corresponding member of council
of the Chemical, Metallurgical and Mining Society of South Africa as early as
1913, served as joint vice-president from 1934, was elected president for 1937/8
and was elected an honorary life member in 1946. His presidential address dealt
with the financial aspects of mining on the Witwatersrand. In 1954 he was
president of the (British) Institution of Mining and Metallurgy and in his
presidential address discussed 'Future resources and problems of the
Witwatersrand Gold Field'. After his death the South African Institute of
Mining and Metallurgy (successor to the Chemical, Metallurgical and Mining
Society of SA) established the Brigadier Stokes Memorial Award to recognise
outstanding contributions to the mining industry.
Stokes was a man with a superior intellect and inexhaustible
energy who travelled widely, had many friends, and was informally known in his
later years as 'The Brig'. His ABC of behaviour in dealing successfully with any matter was to be "Articulate, Brief and Courteous" (Douglas, 1976). In 1921 he married Lora Mary (Molly) Bradford, with
whom he had four daughters.
