Lieutenant-Colonel William Joseph Stirling of Keir (9 May 1911 – 1 January 1983) was a Scottish officer of the British Army who served during the Second World War. Initially joining the Special Operations Executive, he would go on to command No. 62 Commando and then the 2nd Special Air Service (2 SAS). He was the elder brother of David Stirling, one of the founders of the SAS, but Bill has been described as the "real brains behind the operation". He was, however, removed from his command of 2 SAS by Frederick "Boy" Browning two days before D-Day because they clashed over how best to deploy his unit, thereby ending his army career.
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Early life and education
Stirling was born on 9 May 1911, the eldest son of Brigadier General Archibald Stirling of Keir, a Scottish laird and Margaret Fraser, daughter of Simon Fraser, 13th Lord Lovat. His parents had married in 1910 when his father was 42 and his mother was 29. His mother's family were devout Roman Catholics, and Archibald converted to this faith before their marriage. Among his siblings were David Stirling, commanding officer of the early SAS, and Peter, a diplomat. He was educated at Ampleforth College, an all-boys independent Catholic boarding school in Yorkshire, where he "shone academically and on the sports field". He went on to study history at Trinity College, Cambridge.
Military service
Stirling achieved the rank of cadet serjeant in the Ampleforth College contingent of the Junior Division, Officers' Training Corps. On 1 November 1929, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Lovat Scouts, Territorial Army. After graduating from university, he undertook further training at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst with the aim of becoming a full-time army officer. On 3 September 1932, he transferred to the Scots Guards, with seniority in the rank of second lieutenant from 29 January 1931. In both units he had served alongside his cousin Simon Fraser, Master of Lovat (later the 15th Lord Lovat). He was promoted to lieutenant on 29 January 1934. He transferred to the Regular Army Reserve of Officers on 25 January 1936, with seniority in the rank of lieutenant from 29 January 1934. He then resigned his commission on 25 January 1936, to dedicate himself to the family estate.
Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Stirling was an early recruit into the Special Operations Executive (SOE), joining in March 1940. In April 1940, he was part of a six-man sabotage team tasked with guerrilla warfare on mainland Europe, but the operation was aborted when their submarine hit a mine on the way to Norway. Due to his experience of the inadequacies of the training he and other SOE agents received, the following month he suggested to the War Office that Britain needed a dedicated training centre for guerrilla warfare. After this idea received support from Winston Churchill, the War Office requisitioned Inverailort House in the Scottish Highlands and the Special Training Centre opened in June 1940. Stirling was its chief instructor and among the hundreds of men who came through its doors for training were his brother David and Paddy Mayne.
In January 1941, alongside 3 troops of commandos, an SOE unit including Stirling embarked from Scotland for the Middle East Theatre. With Peter Fleming, elder brother of the creator of James Bond, he was tasked with attempting to raise a battalion of anti-fascists from Italian prisoners of war in North Africa; they did not succeed. Following this, he worked at the Cairo GHQ of Middle East Command as the personal assistant to Lieutenant General Arthur Smith. Despite the later narrative of his brother's skilful escapade to take his personal idea for the Special Air Service (SAS) into the office of General Neil Ritchie, the concept was a joint idea between the brothers who were both in Cairo by then and it was Bill who presented the idea to the HQ. L Detachment, Special Air Squadron was raised in August 1941. The first raid for the SAS was scheduled for 16 November 1941. However, Bill was called back to the UK on 3 November, leaving his brother and their recruits to undertake their first, disastrous raid; of the 55 men who participated, only 21 returned alive to the rendezvous point and without firing a shot. Bill disembarked in Britain in January 1942, and, having given an account of his time in North Africa to the SOE and the War officer, was given four months leave. He spent this time on his family estate with his young family, while also raising money for the war effort through raffles and bake sales.
Later life
Stirling had succeeded his father as laird of Keir upon his death in 1931. He could have lived a life of luxury, but as it states in his obituary in The Times; "Born to huge possessions he could have sat still and enjoyed good fortune but there was in his character a streak of the Scottish adventurer scorning ease and plenty".
On 27 July 1945, Stirling was appointed a Forestry Commissioner by King George VI. In addition to his estate in Scotland, he also farmed in Tanzania. He lost his 4,000 acre estate in Tanzania to the policy of Africanisation of President Julius Nyerere in 1974. The following year, in 1975, he sold Keir House and 15,000 acres (6,100 ha) of land to a Arab syndicate led by Mahdi Al Tajir, the then United Arab Emirates Ambassador to the United Kingdom for £2 million (equivalent to £15.53 million in 2025). The house had been in the Stirling family for 570 years but, controversially, he "had not consulted his family before the sale was agreed".
In late December 1982, Stirling fell and broke a leg at his home in Park Lane, London; he lay undiscovered for at least 36 hours. He subsequently died on 1 January 1983, aged 71, at King Edward VII's Hospital for Officers. On 8 March 1983, a requiem mass was held for him at the Guards' Chapel, Wellington Barracks in London; this was attended by representatives of the royal family, nobility and veterans who had served with him.
Personal life
Stirling was married to Susan Rachel Bligh (1916–1983), daughter of Noel Bligh, son of the 8th Earl of Darnley; she was a model before they married. They had four children together. His eldest son, Archibald, was married to Diana Rigg.
In popular culture
Bill Stirling is depicted by Gwilym Lee in Season 2 (2025) of the television historical drama SAS: Rogue Heroes.
