Stokes was born in Ireland in 1819 and came up to Pembroke in 1837. He was then elected to a Fellowship from 1841-1857, and then again, after Fellows were allowed to be married, from 1869 until he was elected Master just a few months before his death in 1903. He also held the Lucasian Professorship of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge from 1849, as well as being President of the Royal Society (1885-1890) and Member of Parliament for the University (1887-1892). In July 1889 Queen Victoria created him the Baronet Stokes of Lensfield Cottage. He died in February 1903 and he was buried in the Mill Road Cemetry next to his wife and near his children.