Horace William Stokes was born in Aston, Warwickshire, England on 30 May 1899. It is knot known where or with whom he trained as an architect. He was in practice in Birmingham by the early 1920s and submitted a design for a bungalow in the Daily Mail Architects Competition for Labour-Saving Bungalows in 1922. In 1925 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA). By the late 1930s he worked for the architectural firm Waton & Johnson
Stokes' address was given as 55 Carpenters Road, Lozells, Aston Manor, Warwickshire, in 1911; 119 Wills Street, Lozells, Warwickshire in 1911 and 1922; 29 Warstock Lane, Moseley, Worcestershire in 1930; 141 Highfield Road, Birmingham in 1935 and 1939; and The Cottage, Bishops Gaundle, Sherborne, Dorset in 1979. He died on 24 August 1979.