On 26 January 1871, when Stokes was 20 years old he, along with Benjamin Burns, represented Blackheath at a meeting of twenty-one rugby teams at the Pall Mall Restaurant.

[2] The outcome of the meeting was the founding of the Rugby Football Union whose Laws were to be drafted by three Old Rugbeians, Algernon Rutter, E.C.Holmes and L.J.

Less than two months later, Stokes, himself an Old Rugbeian, accepted a challenge from Scotland to raise a 20-man side to take to Edinburgh to play in what was to be the first international.

[1] The laws of rugby were still far from clearly defined at the time and the Scottish and English teams used different interpretations of them, which led to what has been described as "a sometimes chaotic affair".

[2] He was described as a "brilliant forward, being always on the ball, and often making excellent runs …can also play at capital form at half-back, is a sure tackle and a first-rate drop or place-kick".

This was in the same year that his fellow rugby international and Old Rugbeian, Joseph Fletcher Green, married Isabella's sister Ellen.