First grandson for Kerry Stokes as Ryan and Claire Stokes have baby boy

The latest member of the Stokes clan will ensure the family name and dynasty, after Seven Group CEO Ryan and wife Claire welcomed a baby boy on Thursday. See the first picture.

Billionaire businessman Kerry Stokes has his first grandson. Picture: NCA NewsWire

Seven Group CEO Ryan Stokes and wife Claire have welcomed a strapping baby boy into their growing family.

Queensland entrepreneur and shoe store proprietor Claire, 36, gave birth on Thursday to billionaire businessman Kerry Stokes’ first grandson — something traditionalists may view as critical to Stokes’ family succession plans, and the survival of the family name and dynasty.

Claire and Ryan Stokes have had a baby boy.

The newest Stokes is named Rafferty Kerry Campbell Stokes.

In a nod to the baby’s grandfather, and perhaps the Digger spirit Stokes Sr so admires, the child has been named Rafferty Kerry Campbell Stokes. Campbell is Claire’s maiden name.

Rafferty is the couple’s second child, a little brother to big sister Vivienne Maryon, aged two. Little “Raff” and his sister are heirs to Stokes Sr’s $7 billion Seven West Media, Coates Hire, WesTrac and Caterpillar equipment fortune.

The baby, weighing 3.7kg, was born at Prince of Wales Hospital. A family spokesman said “mother and baby are doing well”.

Rafferty is Stokes Sr’s fourth grandchild.

The four-times-married businessman, 80, has one grandchild from his first marriage to Dorothy Ebert, 20-something-year-old Tara, the child of his long-estranged eldest son Russell.

Kerry Stokes at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra during the National Service on Anzac Day. Picture: NCA NewsWire

Ryan, 45, and Bryant Stokes are the products of Stokes’ second marriage to Denise Bryant. ACE Property Development Group executive Bryant has a young daughter, Victoria Annabelle, three, from his second marriage to Dominique, the artist daughter of Double Bay hairstylist Lloyd Lomas.

Given the name Rafferty means “one who will prosper”, it’s expected the name was a popular choice within the Stokes family, where Stokes Sr’s quest for prosperity and wealth has defined the man given up for adoption by his unmarried mother and adopted by an impoverished childless couple.

Interesting factoid: Chips Rafferty (real name John Goffage), born 1909, was a jack-of-all-trades who worked as an opal miner, sheep shearer, drover, an RAAF officer in War War II and pearl diver before making his name as a celebrated actor.

Kerry Stokes (real name John Alford), born 1940 in Melbourne, dropped out of high school at 14 and worked a series of jobs — as a rabbit trapper, paperboy, TV antenna installation man and real estate agent — before making his first million dollars as a property developer in Perth.

An investment in media saw the war memorabilia collector grow his fortune exponentially, leading to his expansion into pastoralism, mining and construction equipment, and property. Stokes Sr, who has admitted to historic arterial surgery but remained silent on the health issues that saw he and his wife granted a government exemption to home quarantine last year upon their return from Colorado — his back is said to be a major source of pain — will no doubt be relishing the opportunity to meet his new grandson and heir.

In the meantime, he has been introduced to his grandson via video call to Perth.