| Birth name | Claude Bayfield Stokes |
|---|---|
| Birth date | 27 October 1875 |
| Birth place | Mussoorie, North-Western Provinces, India |
| Death date | 7 December 1948 (aged 73) |
| Death place | South Kensington, London, England |
| Occupation | Indian Army Officer and Diplomat |
| Office | British Vice Consul in Nice |
|---|---|
| Term start | 1931 |
| Term end | 1940 |
| Office 1 | British High Commissioner in Transcaucasia |
| Monarch 1 | George V |
| Prime minister 1 | David Lloyd George |
| Term start 1 | 1920 |
| Term end 1 | 1921 |
| Predecessor 1 | Oliver Wardrop |
| Successor 1 | Position abolished due to the occupation of Georgia |
Colonel Claude Bayfield Stokes (27 October 1875 – 7 December 1948) was an Indian Army officer and diplomat.[1][2] He served in India and was an intelligence officer with Dunsterforce during the First World War.
Stokes was educated at St John's School, Leatherhead and Sandhurst.[3] He was commissioned into the East Kent Regiment on 28 September 1895 and served on the North West Frontier 1897–98.[4] He transferred to the Indian Army 7 October 1897 and in July 1900 he joined the 3rd Skinner's Horse, a unit of the Indian Army.[5][4]
Stokes was appointed military attaché to Tehran from 1907 to 1911. During this period he supplied Edward Granville Browne with sensitive intelligence.[6] In 1908 he saved the life of Ali-Akbar Dehkhoda, the Iranian linguist and Hassan Taqizadeh (a subsequent President of Iran), when he allowed him to take refuge in the British Legation compound.[7] He commanded the first detachment of the British Army to go to Baku arriving on 4 August 1918.[5]
He was appointed British High Commissioner in Transcaucasia, based in the Georgian capital of Tiflis, from 1920 to 1921.[8]
He retired from the Indian Army 1 October 1922.[9]
From 1931 to 1940 he was British Vice consul in Nice, France.[8]
Family life
Stokes had married Olga Postovsky in Turkey in the early 1920s and they had a daughter. Stokes died at 22B Roland Gardens in South Kensington London on 7 December 1948.[10]
References
- ^ Hui-Min Lo (1978), The Correspondence of G. E. Morrison 1912–1920, Vol. 2, Cambridge University Press, p. 315, ISBN 9780521215619
- ^ Biography, Who's Who
- ^ "Who's Who"
- ^ January 1908 Indian Army List
- ^ "Dunsterforce – part 1". Retrieved 8 October 2013.
- ^ Mansour Bonakdarian (30 June 2006), Britain And the Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1906–1911, Syracuse University Press, ISBN 9780815630425. OCLC 63171146. 0815630425
- ^ Homa Katouzian (2012), "Iran", Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, OCLC 830085718
- ^ Halpern, Paul (2011). The Mediterranean Fleet, 1919–1929. Ashgate Publishing.
- ^ Indian Army List 1941 Supplement
- ^ "Deaths." Times [London, England] 8 December 1948: 1. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 9 October 2013.