Charles Lingard Stokes
Charles Lingard Stokes (1826-1864)
1857 Locomotive Superintendent of the East Indian Railway.[1]
1865 Obituary [2]
Charles Lingard Stokes was born in Gloucestershire in 1826, and served his time in the locomotive department of the London and South Western Railway with Mr. John V. Gooch.
In 1850 he joined the Eastern Counties Railway, and remained there until 1855, when he was appointed locomotive superintendent of the East Indian Railway; in which capacity he was one of the early pioneers of the locomotive system in India, and afforded the government important assistance during the Indian mutiny by his unwearied devotion in working the railway from Calcutta during that eventful period.
At the instigation of the Governor General, the late Lord Canning, he constructed two steam vessels on the Ganges for the conveyance of troops on that occasion: the first vessel was built with extraordinary rapidity, and was worked by two locomotives with their engines and boilers complete, adapted with great ingenuity to the purpose.
The mental anxiety and exposure suffered during the mutiny, combined with the insidious effects of the climate, caused his health to give way; and he was ultimately compelled to resign his appointment, and returned home in 1862.
He died rather suddenly on 19th January 1864, at the age of thirty-seven.
He was elected a Member of the Institution in 1857