Ben Stokes Family History

Overview

Benjamin Andrew Stokes, better known as the English cricketer Ben Stokes, was born on June 4th 1991 to Ged and Deb Stokes in Christchurch, New Zealand.   He spent the first twelve years of his life in Christchurch where he showed his early talent as a cricketer.

In 2004 his father accepted a rugby coaching job at Workington in Cumbria and the family moved to the West Cumbrian town of Cockermouth.  He played cricket locally.  But he dropped out of the state school system at sixteen,  gaining just one GCSC in physical education. 

A Cricketing Life.  Ben was eighteen when he made his cricketing debut for the county of Durham in 2009.  He progressed rapidly with both bat and ball and was a key member of the Durham team that won the 2013 County Championship.  In the same year he played his first Test for the English national team.

He was to become a dynamic part of that team, culminating with his role in the dramatic match at Lord’s in 2019 when England beat New Zealand (of all countries) in the Cricket World Cup final.

But Ben had his demons as well and could sometimes struggle with mental issues.  Following an international cricket match at Bristol in 2017, he was arrested for getting involved in a street brawl across from a nightclub.  As a result of this incident he was subsequently charged with bringing the game of cricket into disrepute.

Cricket Captaincy.  However, by 2022 the English cricket team was in need of a new Test captain.  Its administrators chose Ben Stokes to be their man.

Ben was fortunate in that they also chose Brendon McCullum, a New Zealander, to work with him.  Ben and Brendon shared a common culture and approach to life.  Between them they developed Bazball to reinvigorate the national team.

Ben proved himself to be an astute and much respected captain, as well as a dynamic batter and bowler for his team.

The Stokes Name

The Stokes name in England is mostly a locational type surname.  It derived from the Old English word stocc meaning “tree stump” and would describe someone who lived near a tree stump or where trees were felled.  The surname first appeared with Peter de Stokes of Dallington in Northamptonshire as early as the 13th century.

It became a name of the West Midlands, from Staffordshire (which had the largest numbers in the 1881 census) down to Worcestershire.

The Stokes surname was also to be found in Ireland. The name here could have come from English settlers; or from the Gaelic word stocain meaning, like the Old English, “tree trunk.”  Irish Stokes, mainly to be found in the south of the country, were predominantly Catholic according to the 1901 Irish census.

The New Zealand Line

Joseph and Lizzie.  The first known date for Ben’s Stokes in New Zealand is 1873, the year of the marriage of Joseph Stokes and Lizzie Detlaff at Okarito on South Island’s west coast.  Both were very young at the time, Joseph aged twenty-two and Lizzie just eighteen and recorded as a minor.

Joseph (pictured above) was by trade a butcher.  He may or may not have been born in New Zealand.  It is likely that he or his family had been drawn to the west coast of South Island by gold mining fever.  In 1865 there had been a rush to the small port of Okarito where gold could be found just by digging on its black-sand beaches.  However, this gold rush soon ended and by 1868 the population there had dwindled.   

Lizzie, born in Liverpool, had come to New Zealand via Tasmania with her parents sometime in the 1860’s.  Her father was originally from Poland, her mother English, and she was their eldest child. 

Joseph and Lizzie settled on the coast in the Westland district of South Island, first at Okarito and then by the late 1870’s at the larger town of Greymouth.

There were born to them ten living children between 1874 and 1900, eight girls and two boys.  In fact the first seven of their family were all girls.  They must have kept trying for a boy!  Eventually number eight Arthur (born in 1892) and number ten James or Jim (born in 1899) came along, the last-named being Ben Stokes’  great grandfather.

Many of these children, including Jim of Ben’s line (see on the right at back), can be seen in this 1960 photo shoot.

Later Stokes.  Jim and his son Jim had both married Kennedy girls – from the Irish that had come to the nearby coal mining town of Brunnerton on the west coast.

Jim the younger was the first to show sporting prowess.  He was a West Coast and Canterbury rugby league forward.   In the 1940’s Jim and his wife Kathleen moved south from Greymouth to the larger town of Christchurch where they raised their children – two boys (including Ben’s father Ged) and two girls.

Ged and Deb

Ged.  Gerard (or Ged as he was usually called) was a carpenter by trade.  He also followed his father into rugby league.

He was a schoolboy Kiwi in 1971.  He later played provincial rugby for Canterbury and represented his country in four non-Test matches on their 1982 tour of Australia.  In one match Ged dislocated his finger and asked for an amputation so that he could play again more quickly.

After playing came coaching.  He started coaching for provincial sides in 1994 and, six years later, was named New Zealand’s coach of the year.  But he was not successful in his attempt to become New Zealand’s national coach.

Consequently in 2004 he accepted an offer to coach in England with the  Workington Town rugby league team.  He moved his family there.  They were to remain in England for nine years until they returned to Christchurch in 2013.  Significantly their son Ben remained in England.

Ged died of brain cancer in Christchurch in 2020 at the youngish age of sixty-four.

Deb.  The former Deborah Shanks has Maori blood in her, of which her son Ben has been greatly proud.  He has a ta moko tattoo on his left arm which connects to this Maori heritage.  Her Ngapuhi Maori line had first come from North Island and the Northland region there.

Deb suffered some personal tragedies in 1988 prior to her marriage to Ged.  The English newspaper The Sun shamelessly headlined this story in 2019 at a time when her son Ben was in the news for his cricketing exploits.  Ben sued The Sun.  In 2021 he won the case.  The newspaper agreed to apologise and to pay substantial damages.

Ben Stokes’ Family Tree

• New Zealand