Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Son of Richard and Pearl P. C. Stokes, of Blakehurst, New South Wales

Served in Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve aboard Arvo Manchester I R5795 OF-W

Brest- daylight attack on the pocket-battleship Gneisenau

Shot down over the sea by Me 109s. Five of the seven crew were seen by other aircraft to bale out

PILOT-OFFICER N. G. STOKES.
Died With His Plane Over France.
"He died a hero." That simple yet eloquent tribute to the gallant captain of his plane, Pilot-Officer. Neville George Stokes, R.A.F., was expressed by Sergeant T. Wade, a fellow member of the crew, in a letter-card which was recently handed to the relatives of the late officer. This air man was formerly a resident of Sans Souci. He joined the Royal Air Force in December, 1940, and saw service  in the  Bomber Command for almost twelve months. In December, 1941, his brother, Mr. Richard T. Stokes, of Sans Souci, received word from the Air Ministry that he was reported missing while engaged in  operations over Brest, France. Pilot-Officer Stokes was a younger, son of Mrs. Pearl Stokes arid the late Mr. Richard Stokes, of Nelson Street, Sans Souci. His mother and sister, Merle, now live  at Glenfarne Street, Bexley.
This airman received his first education at Sans Souci Public School, from where he went to St. Andrew's Cathedral Choir Schoql, Sydney. He took a keen and active interest in the air long before the  war, having been attached to the R.A.A.F. in the first instance. Later, determined to make flying a career, he secured both an "A" and "B" civilian pilot's licence at Mascot. After much cross-country and other flying in New South Wales, he joined a commercial aerial transport company operating in New Guinea. For nearly three years he piloted 'planes for two companies in that tropical outpost.  However, owing to ill health, he had to return to Sydney, where he joined Qantas Empire Airways, as a member of the ground staff. For a while Pilot-Officer Stokes was Actually a member of the A.I.F.,  in an anti-aircraft battery, but later was released at the request of Qantas Airways. Finally however, being determined to fly once again, Neville Stokes worked his passage home to England, as an  engineer on a ship. He informed his relatives by letter that his ship arrived at Liverpool, England, during the occasion of a big German "blitz" on that city. 
They were right in the thick of it. When he joined the Royal Air Force in December, 1940, his practical long distance flying experience as a civilian pilot was quickly recognised, and he was posted to the Bomber Command. For the greater part of 12 months he was engaged in night bombing operations over Europe. He once piloted a Manchester bomber on a raid on Berlin. His brother, Mr.  Richard Stokes, said this week that the operation from which Pilot-Officer Stokes did not return was, he understood, his first daytime bombing raid. From a German prison camp has come the first details of his death. Sergeant T. Wade, one of the crew of the plane piloted by Stokes, and a prisoner of war gave the news in a letter-card which was received by his mother, Mrs. T. Wade of Tempe. He wrote: "If  you should ever meet the relatives of Pilot-Officer Stokes, my pilot, would you let them know that he stayed at the controls to enable his crew to bail out from the burning plane. He died a hero."

Sergeant Wade landed safely by parachute. Others, it appears, also escaped death when the plane crashed. Later Mrs. Wade conveyed the Information, after a long search, to Mrs. Stokes, the late pilot's mother. It brought a period of months of suspense and uncertainty to an end. The late Pilot-Officer Stokes was not married. He would have been 39 years of age last April. 

Australia, Anglican Parish Registers, 1814-2011

Name Neville George Stokes
Record Type Baptism
Birth Date 16 Apr 1913
Baptism Date 21 May 1913
Baptism Place Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Parish as it Appears Waterloo
Father Richard Stokes
Mother Pearl Patricia Constance Stokes