David Stirling

Sir Archibald David Stirling (15 November 1915 – 4 November 1990) was a British officer in the British Army and the founder and creator of the Special Air Service (SAS).

Under his leadership, the SAS carried out hit-and-run raids behind the Axis lines of the North African campaign.

Stirling was born at his family's ancestral home, Keir House, in the parish of Lecropt, Perthshire on 15 November 1915.

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).

Stirling was commissioned into the Scots Guards on 24 July 1937.

At 6 ft with an athletic figure, Stirling was training to climb Mount Everest when the Second World War broke out in September 1939.

In June 1940, he volunteered for the new No. 8 (Guards) Commando under Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Laycock, which became part of Force Z (later named "Layforce").

On 1 February 1941, Layforce sailed for the Middle East, in support of the capture of Rhodes, but were soon disbanded after suffering heavy casualties in the Battle of Crete and the Battle of the Litani River.

Stirling remained convinced that due to the mechanised nature of war, a small team of highly trained soldiers with the advantage of surprise could attack several targets from the desert in a single night.

Believing that taking his idea up the chain of command was unlikely to work, Stirling decided to go straight to the top.

On crutches following a parachuting accident, he stealthily entered Middle East headquarters in Cairo (under, through, or over a fence) in an effort to see Commander-in-Chief, Middle East Command General Sir Claude Auchinleck.

Spotted by guards, Stirling abandoned his crutches and entered the building, only to come face-to-face with an officer with whom he had previously fallen out.

Retreating rapidly, he entered the office of the deputy chief of staff, Major General Neil Ritchie.

Stirling explained his plan to Ritchie, immediately after which Ritchie persuaded Auchinleck to allow Stirling to form a new special operations unit.

The unit was given the deliberately misleading name "L Detachment, Special Air Service Brigade" to reinforce Dudley Clarke's deception of a parachute brigade existing in North Africa.

Stirling's new special operations unit was, at the outset, short of equipment (particularly tents and related gear) when the unit set up at Kibrit Air Base.

The first operation of the new SAS was to steal from a nearby well-equipped New Zealand regiment various supplies including tents, bedding, tables, chairs and a piano.

After at least four trips, they had a well-stocked camp.

After a brief period of training, an initial attempt at attacking a German airfield by parachute landing on 16 November 1941 in support of Operation Crusader proved to be disastrous for the unit.

Of the original 55 men, some 34 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 to hit the region.

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, bluffing through checkpoints at night using the language skills of some of his soldiers.

Under Stirling's leadership, the Lewes bomb, the first hand-held dual explosive and incendiary device, was invented by Jock Lewes.

American Jeeps, which were able to deal with the harsh desert terrain better than other transport, were cut down, adapted and fitted with Vickers K machine guns fore and aft.

Stirling also pioneered the use of small groups to escape detection.

Finding it difficult to lead from the rear, Stirling often led from the front, his SAS units driving through enemy airfields in the Jeeps to shoot up aircraft and crew.

The first Jeep-borne airfield raid occurred soon after acquiring the first batch of Jeeps in June 1942, when Stirling's SAS group attacked the Italian-held Bagush airfield along with two other Axis airfields all in the same night.

After returning to Cairo, Stirling collected a consignment of more Jeeps for further airfield raids.

He saw active service during the Second World War until he was captured in January 1943.

He spent the rest of the war in captivity, despite making several attempts to escape.

Stirling left the Regular Army in 1947.

He founded the Capricorn Africa Society, which aimed to fight racial discrimination in Africa, but Stirling's preference to a limited, elitist voting franchise over universal suffrage limited the movement's appeal.

He subsequently formed various private military companies and was linked with a failed attempt to overthrow the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in the early 1970s.

He also attempted to organise efforts to undermine trades unionism and to overthrow the British government, none of which made significant headway.

He was made a Knight Bachelor in 1990, and died later the same year.

Simon Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat was a first cousin.

His paternal grandparents were Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, 9th Baronet and Lady Anna Maria Leslie-Melville.

Stirling was educated in England at the Catholic boarding school Ampleforth College.

He was part of the Ampleforth Officer Training Corps.

He attended Trinity College, Cambridge for a year before going to Paris to become an artist.