[1][2] He was most recognised as a co-author of the second[3] of the three papers published sequentially in Nature on 25 April 1953[4] describing the correct molecular structure of DNA.
In 1993, on the 40th anniversary of the publication of the molecular structure of DNA, a plaque was erected in the Quad (courtyard) of the Strand campus of King's College London, commemorating the contributions of Franklin, Gosling, Stokes, Wilson, and Wilkins to "DNA X-ray diffraction studies".
He received a first-class degree in the natural science tripos in 1940 at Trinity College, Cambridge and then researched X-ray crystallography of Imperfect Crystals for his PhD in 1943 under the supervision of Lawrence Bragg at the Cavendish Laboratory.
Maurice Wilkins wrote in his autobiography[12] that he asked Stokes to predict what a helical structure would look like as an x-ray diffraction photograph, and that he was able to determine this by the next day through mathematical calculations made during a short train journey.
He was a choral singer, played the piano and was an elder in his local free church, in Welwyn Garden City.