Thomas Stokoe was a Yorkshireman who came to Cape Town in 1911. He was a printer by trade but was best known as a mountaineer and plant collector. He was a member of the South African Mountain Club and used to spend days out on hikes. He would bring back plant specimens to the Bolus Herbarium and many of them were new and a number were named after him. He tended to be a bit vague about where the specimens were collected from which resulted in some challenging detective work in later years, attempting to track down rare species which he had discovered.

Erica thomae, named by Louisa Bolus in honour of Thomas Stokoe, who provided the type material.