{{Short description|British soldier and mountaineer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
'''John Henry Stokes''' MBE BEM (28 August 1945 – 10 January 2016), known as '''{{'}}Brummie' Stokes''', was a British Army soldier and mountaineer, known for his successful summit of Everest in 1976.
== Personal life == Stokes was born in 1945 in Hamstead, then a mining village straddling the border of South Staffordshire and Birmingham, England, hence his nickname of 'Brummie'.<ref name="HT">{{cite news|url=http://m.herefordtimes.com/news/14194702.SAS_legend_dies/|title=Updated: Tributes paid after SAS legend dies|date=12 January 2016|work=Hereford Times|accessdate=12 January 2016}}</ref>
His autobiography, ''Soldiers & Sherpas, A Taste For Adventure'', was published in 1988.
He died in January 2016, and was survived by his wife, Lynn, and their two sons.<ref name="HT" /><ref name="Tyler">{{cite web|url=http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/intrepid-everest-climber-john-brummie-10715848|title=Intrepid Everest climber John "Brummie" Stokes has died aged 70|last=Tyler|first=Jane|date=11 January 2016|work=Birmingham Mail|accessdate=12 January 2016}}</ref>
== Military service ==
At the age of seventeen, Stokes joined the Royal Green Jackets, an infantry regiment of the British Army. Three years later, he joined the SAS Regiment.<ref name="HT" />
With the SAS he saw action in the Falklands War.<ref name="HT" /> He left the army in 1985.<ref name="HT" /> He was awarded a British Empire Medal for his nineteen years' work in the Special Air Service.{{Citation needed|date=January 2016}} He was well liked by all his fellow Soldiers.<ref name="HT" />
== Mountaineering == {{Further|1976 British and Nepalese Army Expedition to Everest}} Stokes took part in an expedition to Nuptse in 1975, in which four members of the team died.<ref name="HT" /> The next year, during a British Army expedition to Everest in 1976, he reached the summit along with fellow SAS colleague Michael Lane.<ref name="HT" /> Stokes lost all his toes and part of each foot to frostbite.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZOomkQfnWsAC&dq=%22michael+Lane%22+everest&pg=PA142 Where the Mountain Casts Its Shadow by Maria Coffey]</ref>{{page needed|date=June 2023}} Nonetheless, Stokes became only the third Briton to conquer Everest.<ref name="Tyler" /> In 1984, while climbing on the north face of Everest (having proved himself by climbing Denali in Alaska), an avalanche wiped out advanced base camp, killing one of the members and injuring several others, and Stokes' neck was broken.<ref name="HT" />
After leaving the army, he was part of an attempt to conquer Everest's last unclimbed route, its northeast ridge, accessed through China.<ref name="HT" /> Although he succeeded in climbing the ridge, the summit could not be reached due to weather conditions, and Stokes was partially paralysed by cerebral oedema.<ref name="HT" />
==Charity work== In 1991, with his wife, Stokes established and ran the 'Taste for Adventure Centre', a registered charity and outdoor activity centre for less privileged children, at Credenhill.<ref name="HT" /> He was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for this work in 2004.<ref name="HT" /><ref>[http://www.gazettes-online.co.uk/ViewPDF.aspx?pdf=57315&geotype=London&gpn=21&type=Supplement&all=John Henry Stokes&exact=John Henry Stokes&atleast=&similar=]{{dead link|date=June 2023}}</ref>
== Bibliography == {{Cite book| title=Soldiers & Sherpas, A Taste For Adventure|last=Stokes |first=J H 'Brummie' | author-mask=0 |publisher=Michael Joseph Ltd |isbn=978-0718131197 |year=1988}}
==See also== *List of 20th-century summiters of Mount Everest
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [http://www.tasteforadventure.co.uk/ Taste for Adventure Website] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20090221193727/http://www.everest1953.co.uk/History.html Mount Everest The British Story] – 1976 Mount Everest Expedition details
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stokes, John Brummie}} Category:1945 births Category:2016 deaths Category:People from Hamstead Category:Royal Green Jackets soldiers Category:Special Air Service soldiers Category:Recipients of the British Empire Medal Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire Category:British summiteers of Mount Everest Category:Military personnel from the West Midlands (county) Category:British Army personnel of the Falklands War