Peterborough & The Great War

Biography

Joseph Edward Stokes was born around 1889 in Birmingham.  His father Joseph was a brass caster; his mother’s name is not known.  In 1906, at the age of 17,  he joined the 4th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment.  The 1911 Census records him with his regiment in India where they were stationed at Bareilly.  The regiment was paraded before King George V at Delhi in November 1911.

On 24 January 1909, Joseph married Alice Morgan in Birmingham, and by 1912 it is thought he had left the army and was living in Handsworth, in a property owned by his father.  Joseph and Alice had one son in 1915.  However,  records show that by 1916 Joseph was serving with the Royal Engineers at Parkfield Street, Lowestoft.  He passed through Peterborough on 4 June 1916 and wrote in the visitor’s book “A Friend in Need Is a Friend Indeed.”

No further information has been found on L/Cpl Stokes but records indicate that he survived the war and died in Birmingham during 1923 aged 34.

Can you tell us more? Please get in touch if Joseph’s story sounds familiar.