Frederick Stokes (12 July 1850 – 7 February 1929) was the first captain of the

England national rugby union team The England national rugby union team represents the Rugby Football Union (RFU) in international rugby union. They compete in the annual Six Nations Championship with France national rugby union team, France, Ireland national rugby union team, ...

, who played for and captained the team in the first three rugby internationals, all between

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. He was also the youngest president of the

Rugby Football Union The Rugby Football Union (RFU) is the Sports governing body, national governing body for rugby union in England. It was founded in 1871, and was the sport's international governing body prior to the formation of what is now known as World Rugby ...

Early life

Frederick Stokes was born on 12 July 1850 in

Greenwich Greenwich ( , , ) is an List of areas of London, area in south-east London, England, within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London, east-south-east of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime hi ...

, the son of Henry Graham Stokes, Proctor to the Admiralty and solicitor, and his wife Elizabeth Sewell. He was one of at least nine children (six brothers and three sisters)Class: RG10; Piece: 760; Folio: 35; Page: 20; GSU roll: 824727, Census Returns of England and Wales, 1871. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO), 1871 and attended

Rugby School Rugby School is a Public school (United Kingdom), private boarding school for pupils aged 13–18, located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire in England. Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independ ...

.Steve Lewis, ''One Among Equals'', 2008, pp9-10 (Vertical Editions:London)

Rugby football

Stokes played for

Blackheath F.C. Blackheath Football Club is a rugby union club based in Well Hall, Eltham, in south-east London. The club was founded in Blackheath in 1858 and is the oldest open rugby club in continuous existence in the world. The Blackheath club also assi ...

and was for a time captain of that side. His five brothers also played for Blackheath. England 1871 first

On 26 January 1871, when Stokes was 20 years old he, along with Benjamin Burns, represented Blackheath at a meeting of twenty-one rugby teams at the

Pall Mall Restaurant The Pall Mall Restaurant was a hostelry situated at Number 1 Cockspur Street, Westminster, London, just off Pall Mall and near Trafalgar Square. The site was subsequently the offices of the White Star Line, and was then occupied by a Tex Mex r ...

. The outcome of the meeting was the founding of the

whose Laws were to be drafted by three Old Rugbeians, Algernon Rutter, E.C.Holmes and L.J. Maton. Less than two months later, Stokes, himself an Old Rugbeian, accepted a challenge from Scotland to raise a 20-man side to take to

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

to play in what was to be the first international. Burns was also in the England side and of the 20 men, 10 were former pupils of

. Stokes was chosen to captain this side, which played Scotland at Raeburn Place in Edinburgh on 27 March 1871. The laws of rugby were still far from clearly defined at the time and the Scottish and English teams used different interpretations of them, which led to what has been described as "a sometimes chaotic affair". Scotland won this first international by one goal and one try to one try. Stokes was chosen to captain the return match in 1872 when Scotland visited the

Kennington Oval Kennington is a district in south London, England. It is mainly within the London Borough of Lambeth, running along the boundary with the London Borough of Southwark, a boundary which can be discerned from the early medieval period between th ...

on 5 February 1872. England won this match by one goal, one drop goal and two tries, to one drop goal. The teams played for a third time the following year on 3 March 1873 in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

which ended scoreless. Once again, Stokes was the captain and was one of only three England players to have appeared in every match. This was Stokes's last international and he effectively retired from international rugby when he was 22. However, his involvement continued and in 1874 he became the second president of the fledgling RFU and remains the youngest man to have held the position. He was described as a "brilliant forward, being always on the ball, and often making excellent runs …can also play at capital form at half-back, is a sure tackle and a first-rate drop or place-kick".

Other sports

A good golfer, he also played

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

for

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ken ...

, as did two of his brothers, Graham and

Lennard Lennard may refer to: * Lennard Freeman (born 1995), American basketball player in the Israeli Basketball Premier League * Lennard Pearce (1915–1984), English actor * Dave Lennard (born 1944), English footballer * Henry Lennard (16th–17th cen ...

.Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part One: 1806–1914'' (revised edition), pp. 505–506.
Available online
at the

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. Retrieved 2020-12-21.)

Life outside of rugby and family

Frederick followed his father into the legal profession becoming a

solicitor A solicitor is a lawyer who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to p ...

. Frederick married Isabella Penn in 1877, the daughter of the famous marine engineer, John Penn. This was in the same year that his fellow rugby international and Old Rugbeian, Joseph Fletcher Green, married Isabella's sister Ellen. Thus, he and Joseph were brothers-in-law. They had a number of children including: Frederic Frank Stokes (1880), Alick (1882), Ellen Muriel Stokes (1888), Ellen Sybil Stokes (1891), Ellen Zoe Stokes (1898). Frederick Stokes died on 7 February 1929, at Inhurst House, Baughurst, Berkshire aged 78. Notably, all five of Frederick's brothers were keen sportsmen and all played rugby. One of his brothers, Lennard Stokes, also captained the

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stokes, Frederick 1850 births 1929 deaths English rugby union players England international rugby union players Blackheath F.C. players Rugby union forwards English cricketers Kent cricketers People educated at Rugby School English solicitors Gentlemen of the South cricketers Gentlemen cricketers People from Greenwich Rugby union players from the Royal Borough of Greenwich