John Stokes, British soldier and mountaineer, Died at 70

  Sports

John Henry Stokes was born in 1945, in Hamstead and died in January 2016.

He was a British soldier and mountaineer.

He was widely known as ‘ Brummie’ Stokes.

He was popularly known for his successful summit of Everest in 1976.

John was formula with a mining village straddling the border of South Staffordshire, and Birmingham, England, hence his nickname of ‘Brummie”.

When he was seventeen, he joined the Royal Green Jackets and infantry regiment of the British Army.

After 3 yrs, he joined the SAS Regiment.

While he was with the SAS he saw action in the Falklands War.

In 1985, he left the army.

Mr.Stokes was awarded a British Empire Medal for his nineteen years’ work in the Special Air Service

John Stokes autobiography, Soldiers & Sherpas, A Taste For Adventure, was published in 1988.

He had taken part in an expedition to Nuptse in 1975, in which four members of the team died.

During the following year, while he was on a British Army expedition to Everest in 1976, he reached the summit along with fellow SAS colleague Bronco Lane.

John had lost all his toes and part of each foot to frostbite.

However, he became only the third Briton to conquer Everest.

In 1984 while climbing on the north face of Everest (having proved himself by climbing Mount McKinley in Alaska), an avalanche wiped out advanced base camp, killing one of the members and injuring several others, and Stokes’ neck was broken.

Following him leaving the army, John was part of an attempt to conquer Everest’s last unclimbed route, on its north-east ridge, accessed via China.

Even though he was successful in climbing the ridge, the summit could not be reached due to weather conditions, and Stokes was partially paralysed by cerebral oedema.

He left behind his wife Lynn and their two sons

John Stokes passed away at 70 yrs old.