Claude Stokes
Indian Army officer and diplomat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Colonel Claude Bayfield Stokes CIE DSO OBE (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.
27 October 1875
Claude Stokes | |
|---|---|
Stokes at 26 May Celebration. 1919 | |
| Born | Claude Bayfield Stokes 27 October 1875 Mussoorie, North-Western Provinces, India |
| Died | 7 December 1948 (aged 73) South Kensington, London, England |
| Occupations | Indian Army Officer and Diplomat |
| British Vice Consul in Nice | |
| In office 1931–1940 | |
| British High Commissioner in Transcaucasia | |
| In office 1920–1921 | |
| Monarch | George V |
| Prime Minister | David Lloyd George |
| Preceded by | Oliver Wardrop |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished due to the occupation of Georgia |
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]