Richard Rapier Stokes, MC (27 January 1897 – 3 August 1957) was a British soldier and Labour politician who served briefly as Lord Privy Seal in 1951.

Richard Stokes was the maternal uncle of Katharine Hull, coauthor of The Far Distant Oxus and its sequels, and was also a good friend of author Arthur Ransome, who helped with the books publication.

[8] He was personally friendly with prominent English far-right figures such as Hastings Russell, Marquis of Tavistock[9] and Gerard Wallop, Viscount Lymington.

[8] With Bishop George Bell and fellow Labour Member of Parliament (MP) Alfred Salter, he opposed area strategic bombing during World War II.

[12] It was Stokes's questions in the House of Commons[13] on the bombing of Dresden that were in large part responsible for the shift in British opinion against this type of raid.

[14] Stokes raised other issues after the war relating to Yalta and the forced repatriation of Yugoslavs, and the treatment of Dr George Chatterton-Hill in Germany.

[16] He was appointed Lord Privy Seal and the new position of Minister of Materials in April 1951, succeeding Ernest Bevin but served only a few months before Labour lost the 1951 general election.