David Stirling

This article is about the Scottish laird, mountaineer, and army officer. For the Scottish-Canadian architect, see David Stirling (architect).

Sir David Stirling
Statue of David Stirling by Angela Conner near Doune, Scotland
Born	15 November 1915 (1915-11-15) Lecropt, Perthshire, Scotland
Died	4 November 1990 (1990-11-05) (aged 74) Scotland
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1937-1945
Rank	Colonel
Commands held	Special Air Service[SAS]
Battles/wars	World War II North African Campaign
Awards	Knight Bachelor Distinguished Service Order Officer of the Order of the British Empire Mention in Despatches (2) Distinguished Flying Cross

Colonel Sir Archibald David Stirling, DSO, DFC, OBE (15 November 1915 – 4 November 1990) was a Scottish laird, mountaineer, World War II British Army officer, and the founder of the Special Air Service.

Life before the war

Stirling was born at his family's ancestral home, Keir House in the parish of Lecropt in Perthshire (near Stirling). He was the son of Brigadier General Archibald Stirling, of Keir and Margaret Fraser, daughter of Simon Fraser, the Lord Lovat, (a descendant of Charles II, King of Scots). His cousin was Simon Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat, and his grandparents were Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, 9th Baronet and Lady Anna Maria Leslie-Melville. He was educated at Ampleforth College and Trinity College, Cambridge. A tall and athletic figure (he was 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 m) tall), he was training to climb Mount Everest when World War II broke out.

World War II and the founding of the SAS

Stirling was commissioned into the Scots Guards from Ampleforth College Contingent Officer Training Corps on 24 July 1937. In June 1940 he volunteered for the new No. 8 Commando under Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Laycock which became part of Force Z (later named "Layforce"). After Layforce (and No.8 Commando) were disbanded on 1 August 1941, Stirling remained convinced that due to the mechanised nature of war a small team of highly trained soldiers with the advantage of surprise could exact greater damage to the enemy's ability to fight than an entire platoon.

Aware that taking his idea up through the chain of command was unlikely to work, Stirling decided to go straight to the top. On crutches following a parachuting accident, he sneaked into Middle East headquarters in Cairo (under, through or over a fence but spotted by guards) in an effort to see Commander-in-Chief General Claude Auchinleck. He ran into one office, only to come face-to-face with an officer he had previously fallen out with. Retreating rapidly to shouts of 'Guards,Guards', he dodged into an another office, Stirling came face to face with Deputy Commander Middle East General Ritchie. Stirling explained his plan to Ritchie, the latter immediately convincing Auchinleck (in the office next door) to allow Stirling to form a new Special Forces unit. The unit was given the deliberately misleading name "L Detachment, Special Air Service Brigade" to reinforce an existing deception of a parachute brigade existing in North Africa.

Short of equipment at the outset when they set up base at Kibrit Air Base, particularly tents and related gear, the first operation of the new SAS was to relieve a well-equipped New Zealand unit of small tents, a large tent and contents including a bar and a piano. A truck and a series of bluffs managed to convince curious onlookers and the New Zealand unit that all was well.

After a brief period of training, an initial attempt at attacking a German airfield by parachute landing in support of Operation Crusader was disastrous. 42 of his 61officers and men were killed, wounded or captured far from the target after being blown off course or landing in the wrong area, during one of the biggest storms for thirty years. Escaping only with the help of the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG)who were designated to pick up the unit after the attack, Stirling agreed that approaching by land under the cover of night would be safer and more effective than parachuting. As quickly as possible he organised raids on ports using this simple method, often bluffing through checkposts at night using the language skills of some of his soldiers. Under his leadership, the Lewes bomb was invented by Jock Lewes, the first hand-held dual explosive and incendiary device. American jeeps, which were able to deal with the harsh desert terrain better than other transport, were cut down, adapted and fitted with obsolete RAF machine guns. He also pioneered the use of small groups to escape detection. Stirling often led from the front, his SAS units driving through enemy airfields to shoot up aircraft and crew, replacing the early operational strategy of attaching bombs to enemy aircraft on foot. These hit-and-run operations eventually proved Stirling's undoing; he was captured by the Germans in January 1943. Although he escaped, he was subsequently re-captured by the Italians, who took great delight in the embarrassment this caused to their German allies. A further four escape attempts were made, before Stirling was finally sent to Colditz Castle, where he remained for the rest of the war. After his capture his brother Bill Stirling and Blair 'Paddy' Mayne took command of the SAS.

In North Africa, in the fifteen months before Stirling's capture, the SAS had destroyed over 250 aircraft on the ground, dozens of supply dumps, wrecked railways and telecommunications, and had put hundreds of enemy vehicles out of action. Montgomery of Alamein described Stirling as 'mad, quite mad' but admitted that men like Stirling were needed in time of war.

According to John Aspinal, Stirling had the reputation of having personally strangled 41 men.

Mercenary work

Worried that Britain was losing its power after the War, Stirling organised deals to sell British weapons and military personnel to other countries, like Saudi Arabia, for various privatised foreign policy operations. Stirling along with other associates formed Watchguard International Ltd, formally with offices in Sloane Street (where the Chelsea Hotel now stands) before moving to South Audley Street in Mayfair. Business was chiefly with the Gulf States. He was also linked along with an associate Denys Rowley in a failed attempt to overthrow Gaddafi of Libya in 1970/71. Stirling was the founder of private military company KAS International (aka KAS Enterprises).

Great Britain 75

During the social troubles of mid-1970's Great Britain, David Stirling became increasingly worried that an "undemocratic event" would occur and decided to take action. He created an organisation called Great Britain 75 and recruited members from the aristocratic clubs in Mayfair; mainly ex-military men (often former SAS members). The plan was simple. Should civil unrest result in the breakdown of normal Government operations, they would take over its running. He describes this in detail in an interview from 1974, part of which is present in Adam Curtis's documentary "The Mayfair Set", episode 1 - Who Pays Wins..

Undermining Trade Unionism

During the mid to late 1970's David Stirling created a secret organisation designed to undermine trade unionism from within.

He recruited like minded individuals from within the trade union movement, the express intention that they should cause as much trouble during conferences as permissible. One such member was Kate Losinska who was Head of the Civil and Public Services Association. Funding for this "operation" came primarily from his friend James Goldsmith.

Television

Stirling also ran another of his companies, Television International Enterprises, from the same offices as Watchguard International. T.I.E was responsible for bringing the children's program Sesame Street to Britain. Peter Orton, working at T.I.E., developed the Muppet Show and a couple of decades later Thomas the Tank Engine and Bob the Builder.He also worked on OTT

Later life

Stirling was the founder of the Capricorn Africa Society - a society for promoting an Africa free from racial discrimination. Founded in 1949, while Africa was still under colonial rule, it had its high point at the 1956 Salima Conference. However, because of his emphasis on a qualified and highly elitist voting franchise, Africans opposed it. Conversely white settlers believed it to be too liberal. Consequently the society was ineffective, although surprisingly the South African Communist Party used Stirling's multi-racial elitist model for its 1955 "Congress Alliance" when taking over the African National Congress of South Africa. Stirling resigned as Chairman of the Society in 1959. That year, following gambling losses he was obliged to note John Aspinall - I owe you £173,500 in the accountant's ledger. One night in 1967 he lost a further £150,000. In 1968 he won substantial damages in Libel against Len Deighton amongst others.

Stirling was concerned about the political power of trade unions in Britain, and planned to establish an organisation GB75, which he described as "an organisation of apprehensive patriots" which would help the country in the event of strikes. In August 1974, before Stirling was ready to go public with GB75, the pacifist magazine Peace News obtained and published his plans, and eventually Stirling - dismayed by the right-wing character of many of those seeking to join GB75 - abandoned the scheme.

He was knighted in 1990, and died later that year aged 74.

In 2002 the SAS memorial, a statue of Stirling standing on a rock, was opened on the Hill of Row near his family's estate at Park of Keir.

The current Laird of the Keir estate is his nephew Archie Stirling, a millionaire businessman and former Scots Guards officer.

Other

Stirling House at Welbeck college is named after him, as well as the former headquarters at Hereford.

Additional reading

• Significant Scots biography of David Stirling
• Gavin Mortimer, Stirling's Men: the inside history of the SAS in World War Two (Cassell, 2004)

Documentaries

• The Mayfair Set, part I.