Wilfred Stokes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sir Frederick Wilfred Scott Stokes KBE (1860 - 1927) was the inventor in 1915 of the Stokes Mortar, which saw extensive use in the latter half of the First World War and was one of the first truly portable mortars.
A civil engineer by trade, Stokes was Chairman and Managing Director of Ransomes & Rapier, an engineering company based in Ipswich and which manufactured cranes.
As well as receiving a knighthood for inventing the mortar which was named for him, Stokes was given several forms of monetary reward by the Ministry of Munitions for his invention including a royalty of £1 per Stokes mortar shell.