POST 3rd June 2022
This was G.A. (Mick) Stoke's School Motto. He attended Westcliff High School for Boys from 1933 to 1939. Aged eighteen he expected to leave the school and go directly up to University. He had excelled academically and on the sports field, as well as joining most of extra mural clubs and societies activas, whilst also being the school pianist. However, the Second World War intervened and he decided to apply to join the Royal Navy as a regular by sitting the Civil Service Commissioners Special Entry Exams in November 1939.
The Westcliff High School Motto was Fide et Fortutidine. Fide meaning 'trust, belief, faith and courage' and Fortitudine 'with strength, resolve, bravery and courage'. These were the very attributes that Mick Stoke showed in spades to survive multiple torpedoes, bombs and mines during his remarkable war career, becoming The Most Highly Decorated Midshipman in the Second World War.
Jeremy Stoke
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