William Stokes (surgeon)

Sir William Stokes (1839&#45;1900) was a British surgeon. The son of William Stokes, he was born in Dublin, studied medicine there (M.D., 1863) and at Berlin, London, Paris, and Vienna. In 1871 he became professor of surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland. He served as president of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1886&#45;87 and was knighted in 1886, and appointed surgeon in ordinary to the Queen of Ireland in 1892. In 1900 he went to South Africa as consulting surgeon to the British forces in the war against the Boers. While there he was attacked with pleurisy, and he died in Pietermaritzburg. He wrote, amongst other works, Contributions to Practical Surgery (1865, et seq) and Selected Papers on Operative and Clinical Surgery (1902), edited by William Taylor.