Colonel Archibald David Stirling (born 15 November 1915 in the county of Perthshire – died 4 November 1990) was a Scottish nobleman, officer in the British Army during World War II and founder of the Special Air Service.
His family originated from the village of Keir in central Scotland. His father is a brigadier general in the First World War, and his wife belongs to the famous Lovat clan.
After studying at Ampleforth College, in the county of Yorkshire in England, he joined Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. More attracted by extra-university and sporting distractions than by studies, he was fired after a year after receiving no less than twenty-three reprimands for indiscipline.
A former cadet in the officer platoon of Ampleforth College, he was appointed reserve second lieutenant in the Scots Guards on July 24, 1937. In the summer of 1938, he left for Canada, which he crossed from the Atlantic to Peaceful, living on odd jobs and training to climb the peaks he finds on his way.
When war broke out in September 1939, he trained to conquer Mount Everest. He then joined No. 8 Commando formed in June 1940 in England. He fought on the island of Rhodes in May 1941 then joined the Lay Force in North Africa. After the dissolution of Force Lay in June 1941, a temporary lieutenant (with the rank of captain), he founded with Jock Lewes Detachment L (Brigade Special Air Service) in July 1941, taking six officers and sixty soldiers from Force Lay . At the Kabrit camp in Egypt, Stirling conducted the intensive training of his recruits in August and September, without the assistance of instructors, according to new and original methods. The first parachuted operational mission, carried out on October 4, 1941, was however a failure. Parachuted behind enemy lines in high winds and pouring rain, only twenty-two out of sixty men returned to base.
Stirling concludes that most commando operations should be done, as much as possible, by land and not airborne means. In fact, the SAS will now operate in concert with the Long Range Desert Group, a unit created in July 1940 by Commander Ralph Bagnold (1896-1990, OBE-1941) and specialized in deep raids behind German and Italian lines. The SAS will now carry out lightning and destructive raids, especially on German airfields, using Jeeps equipped with twin Vickers machine guns.
Lieutenant David Stirling receives the Distinguished Service Order and is the subject of a citation on February 24, 1942 and is cited again on June 30, 1942 in the context of operations in the Middle East. He was quickly promoted to major - he was nicknamed "the Phantom Major" - then appointed lieutenant-colonel on a temporary basis, commanding the 1st SAS Regiment. After personally commanding several missions, he was captured in January 1943 by the Germans during a raid in Tunisia. After four attempts to escape, he was imprisoned in the fortress of Colditz and was not released until 1945.
A temporary lieutenant-colonel, he was appointed an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) on 14 November 1946 for bravery on the battlefield. In May 1948, Reserve Second Lieutenant Stirling was commissioned as a reserve captain effective July 27, 1947 and granted the rank of honorary lieutenant colonel. In February 1952, he was appointed reserve commander effective November 1, 1947. He retired from the reserve on November 15, 1965 with the rank of commander.
After the war Stirling remains very close to the British secret services and the royal family. Thus, he performs the function of "Goldstick", the person appointed by the royal household to organize the security arrangements on the occasion of the coronation of Princess Elizabeth on June 2, 1953.
He is the designer, in 1963, with the help of a network of Scottish conservative personalities (including Billy McLean), of the operation of military assistance to the royalist tribes of Yemen raised against the pro-Egyptian regime which deposited their monarch in September 1962. This operation ended in 1967 and failed due to the numerical superiority of Egypt (50,000 men) and the British withdrawal from the protectorate of Aden.
The main contractor in the field is his friend Lieutenant-Colonel John "Johnny" Murdoch Cooper (1922-2002), a former SAS officer from 1941 to 1960, with the contribution of French mercenaries Commander Roger Faulques and Bob Denard . Stirling's television company, Television International Enterprises (TIE), serves as MI6's cover for SAS employment.
In 1966, Stirling founded the company Watchguard International employing former SAS. This company of mercenaries is responsible for training and supervising government special forces and organizing operations against rebels from countries in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia. She also works for the British Secret Service. It intervenes in South Yemen by providing SAS attached to the royalist forces.
In July 1970, Stirling begins to prepare with MI6 a military operation to overthrow Colonel Gaddafi who took power in Libya in September 1969. The United States of America opposes this project, the secret of which is poorly kept. , which failed in March 1971.
Stirling left this society in the early seventies and became a member of the Better Britain Society, a political lobbying society proposing constitutional reforms in the United Kingdom. In 1983, he founded, with the support of the World Wildlife Federation (founded by Prince Philip of Edinburgh), the company 00Kilo Alpha Services00 (KAS), headed by a former commander of the 23rd SAS Regiment, Lieutenant-Colonel Ian Crooke. The firm KAS is officially responsible for combating poaching in South Africa, but it also acts for the British secret services, helping the Zulus of Inkatha by Mangosuthu Buthelezi in their fight against the Bantu ANC (African National Congress) of Nelson Mandela.
Stirling was knighted (Knight Bachelor's Badge) in 1990, a few months before his death. A bronze statue of him wearing a duffle coat and cap has been erected near his family home of Keir House.
Decorations
* Knight's Badge (1990, appellation Sir),
* Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (DSO-1942),
* Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE-1946),
* Quoted twice (1942),
* Knight of the Legion of Honor.