Stokes was born in 1945 in Hamstead, then a mining village straddling the border of South Staffordshire and Birmingham, England, hence his nickname of 'Brummie'.
[1][2] At the age of seventeen, Stokes joined the Royal Green Jackets, an infantry regiment of the British Army.
[1] The next year, during a British Army expedition to Everest in 1976, he reached the summit along with fellow SAS colleague Michael Lane.
[1] After leaving the army, he was part of an attempt to conquer Everest's last unclimbed route, its northeast ridge, accessed through China.
[1] Although he succeeded in climbing the ridge, the summit could not be reached due to weather conditions, and Stokes was partially paralysed by cerebral oedema.