CANBERRANS on wheels will be saddened to learn of the death at Ainslie Village of one of this city’s best-know identities, Iain Stokes, better known as ‘Scrubbie.’
In 2013 Stokes was one of the portrait subjects in artist Barbara van der Linden’s Centenary project, “Faces of Canberra,” shown above. Ever-present as the car window cleaner on the Northbourne Avenue and Antill Street intersection, he has been praised as ‘a real gentleman.’
“He has the best work ethic of anyone I know and washes windows in the freezing cold or steaming heat,” van der Linden once said. Friends believe that work ethic eventually caught up with him. His death follows that of fellow Northbourne Avenue window-washer Lindsay Mitchell in 2013.
Blessed with the knack of remembering names and a gentle quality that allowed him to make friends within seconds, he was also disciplined runner, sprinting around Parliament house every night after work.
Family members have said that the nickname ‘Scrubbie’ has nothing to do with window washing, but goes back to his youth when he was a typical boy and always a bit dishevelled.
Stokes was born in 1953 into a lively Canberra family of four children. His father, John Bryant Stokes, was Chief Finance Officer from 1968 in the Territories section of the Treasury, held the purse strings during the rebuilding of Darwin after Cyclone Tracy and became Assistant Secretary in the newly-formed Department of Finance. The founding president of Western Districts Rugby Union Club, Stokes Snr. was a colourful figure with a penchant for gambling that he passed on to his son.
Though born into a loving family, the children were expected to follow in the paths prescribed for them, but ‘Scrubbie’ was destined for another life.
A people person, a practical joker and a keen rugby player, he was head prefect at Lyneham High School. Gaining entry into the University of Canberra, he quickly got caught up in the campus lifestyle of the time, he took a year off from his degree and began to travel on his own path.
He worked in Western Australian mines then in Darwin. When Tracey hit, the family was alarmed at news that he was on a prawn trawler nearby.
Legendary stories abound of this enigmatic, charismatic figure. He was lucid and articulate and he helped people in distress.
He had more than 3,000 friends on Facebook and will be sorely missed by them.
Iain Stokes, 1953-2016
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