I <\ 



OBITUARY NOTICES 



OF 



FELLOWS DECEASED. 



i 



(PART iii.) 



SIE GEOEGE GABRIEL STOKES, BART. 18191903. 



In common with so many distinguished men Sir George Stokes 

 was the son of a clergyman. His father, Gabriel Stokes, who was 

 Eector of Skreen, County Sligo, married Elizabeth Haughton, and by 

 her had eight children, of whom George was the youngest. The 

 family can be traced back to Gabriel Stokes, born 1680, a well-known 

 engineer in Dublin and Deputy Surveyor General of Ireland, who 

 wrote a treatise on Hydrostatics and designed the Pigeon House Wall 

 in Dublin Harbour. This Gabriel Stokes married Elizabeth King 

 in 1711 and among his descendants in collateral branches there are 

 several mathematicians, a Eegius Professor of Greek, two Eegius 

 Professors of Medicine, and a large sprinkling of Scholars of Trinity 

 College, Dublin. In more recent times Margaret Stokes, the Irish 

 antiquary, and the Celtic scholar, Whitley Stokes, children of the 

 eminent physician, Dr. William Stokes, have, among others, shed 

 lustre on the name. 



The home at Skreen was a very happy one. In the excellent sea 

 air the children grew up with strong bodies and active minds. Of 

 course great economy had to be practised to meet the educational 

 needs of the family ; but in the Arcadian simplicity of a place where 

 chickens cost sixpence and eggs were five or six a penny, it was easy 

 to feed them. They were all deeply attached to their mother, a 

 beautiful and severe woman who made herself feared as well as 

 loved. 



Stokes was taught at home ; he learnt reading and arithmetic from 

 the Parish Clerk, and Latin from his father who had been a Scholar of 

 Trinity College, Dublin. The former used to tell with great delight 

 that Master George had made out for himself new ways of doing 



