Jock Stirrup
The Lord Stirrup | |
---|---|
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Air Force Cross |
As a junior RAF officer, Stirrup was a jet pilot, and saw action in the
Early and personal life
Graham Eric Stirrup was born on 4 December 1949, the son of William Hamilton Stirrup and his wife, Jacqueline Brenda Stirrup (née Coulson).[1] He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School in Northwood, Hertfordshire.[1]
Stirrup married Mary Alexandra Elliott in 1976 and they have one son.[2] Stirrup includes golf, music, theatre and history among his interests.[1] He is a fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society,[1] a fellow of the Chartered Management Institute[1] and a member of the Society of Knights of the Round Table.[3]
RAF career
Stirrup started his military career at the
In Oman, Stirrup flew
Promoted to
Stirrup was promoted to
Having been promoted to
From September 2001 to January 2002, Stirrup was UK National Contingent Commander for Operation Veritas (British operations against the Taliban) in Afghanistan, his first direct experience of front-line operations overseas since 1987.[9] In this role Stirrup directed the British contribution to the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom and he was the Senior British Military Advisor to General Tommy Franks, the Commander-in-Chief of United States Central Command.[18] At MacDill Air Force Base, Stirrup headed the 60 strong British team who were contributing to the US-led operational planning.[19] Stirrup was replaced by Lieutenant General Cedric Delves.[18]
In April 2002 Stirrup was appointed
Stirrup was promoted to
Chief of the Defence Staff
Stirrup was appointed
Operations in Iraq
In May 2006, shortly after becoming CDS, Stirrup visited Iraq to assess the situation first hand. The British responsibility was in the south of Iraq and on his return Stirrup reported to the Defence Secretary that Basra was the key to success in southern Iraq. Stirrup identified two obstacles to success, the first being the militias and the second being the need for an acceptable level of Iraqi governance. In addition, he took the view that Iranian interference was a significant exacerbating factor. Noting that neither of two obstacles could be fully dealt with by the British Armed Forces, Stirrup viewed the solution as being essentially political.[20]
In order to take action against the militias, the local British commander in South East Iraq developed a plan to conduct aggressive operations against them. At the same time Stirrup became increasingly concerned that strong political leadership from the Iraqis was lacking and that without this any gains made by the military actions against the militias would be to no avail. In July 2006, Stirrup overturned the previous military advice to the Defence Secretary by stating that force levels in South East Iraq would need to be maintained. Previously it had been thought that they could be reduced from over 7,000 to between 3,000 and 4,000. In September 2006, the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, blocked the British plan to act against the militias which Stirrup believed was because of Maliki's dependence on Sadrist support at that stage.[20]
The original British plan was replaced by Operation Sinbad which was acceptable to the Iraqis and was executed from September 2006 to February 2007. Along with other Coalition commanders, Stirrup viewed Sinbad as insufficient because it did not involve directly attacking the militias. Believing that it would not deliver the level of improvements in security that the British wanted, Stirrup began looking at the high risk strategy of withdrawing British troops from inside Basra which would have left the Iraqis in the position of either having to deal with the security problems themselves or losing control of Iraq's second city.[20]
Following the end of Operation Sinbad, the military situation for the British in Basra worsened and the British base at
After British troops had been withdrawn from Basra city, violence continued and General Mohan took some time to produce a plan for improving security. Notwithstanding the difficulties, the
Operation Charge of the Knights led to the Battle of Basra which lasted from 25 to 31 March. Although the lack of planning resulted in some confusion, the Coalition did support the Iraqi action with land and air assets. By the end of March the Iraqi Government forces had negotiated a ceasefire with Muqtada al-Sadr. With the militias melting away, Iraqi Government forces were able to claim control of Basra. While recognizing that Operation Charge of the Knights had been far from perfect, Stirrup judged it to be a success as the Iraqis were taking responsibility for their own security.[27]
After the conclusion of Operation Charge of the Knights the British were involved in helping to rebuild those Iraq Army units which had suffered from poor cohesion, or even dissolved. In hindsight, Stirrup took the view that the British forces would have been usefully employed in mentoring the Iraq Army to greater extent earlier in the campaign.[20] In late April 2009, most British military operations in Iraq came to an end; and by 28 July 2009 all British forces had left Iraq and were all redeployed to Kuwait.[28]
Operations in Afghanistan
After his appointment as CDS, Stirrup travelled to
Speaking generally on operations in Afghanistan, Stirrup has noted that whilst "the military is a key, an essential element in dealing with those problems, but by and large these problems can only be resolved politically" and that he favoured a pragmatic approach to dealing with former members of the Taliban.[30] By December 2009, Stirrup was expressing his concern about falling levels of public support for the war in Afghanistan which he believed risked undermining the British effort. In particular Stirrup called for a spirit of resolution and stated that the mission was achievable, noting that the British Armed Forces had finally now got a properly resourced plan to achieve the strategic aim.[31]
Extended term of office and retirement
On 14 July 2010, the Defence Secretary Liam Fox announced that General
In April 2013, Stirrup was appointed
Activities as a Peer
In 2013 Stirrup, along with Field Marshal Lord Guthrie and Admiral of the Fleet Lord Boyce, called upon the British Government to derogate from the European Convention on Human Rights for the duration of deployed operations. They were concerned that the increased risk of prosecution faced by commanders would lead to a generation of risk-averse military leaders.[41] In August 2014, Stirrup was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.[42] In June 2015 Stirrup joined the House of Lords' EU External Affairs Sub-Committee.[43] From October 2015 Stirrup has been the president of the Pilgrims Society.[44]
On Remembrance Sunday 2014, it was announced that Stirrup would lead the efforts to raise one million pounds to enable a national memorial to the British service personnel who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan to be erected in central London.[45] By March 2015 Stirrup was confident that the full amount needed could be raised[46] and by July 2016 work had begun on the memorial in the Victoria Embankment Gardens. The Iraq and Afghanistan Memorial was unveiled in March 2017.[47]
In July 2016, Stirrup gave an interview to
Stirrup carried the
Honours
Stirrup has received the following honours:
- Honorary Colonel 73 Engineer Regiment (Volunteers) (1 April 2002 – 1 June 2008)[50][51]
- Doctor of Science from Cranfield University[1]
- Air Aide-de-Camp to Her Majesty The Queen[22]
Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter (KG) |
2013[52] | |
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) |
2005[53] | |
Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) |
2002[54] | |
Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) | 2000[55] | |
Air Force Cross (AFC) | 1983[56] |
Arms
|
References
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- ^ "Membership". Society of Knights of the Round Table. Archived from the original on 8 February 2012. Retrieved 20 May 2012.
- ^ Stirrup, Graham Eric (27 January 2014). Statement by ACM Lord Graham Eric "Jock" Stirrup. Museum of Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University. Event occurs at 4:33. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 11 May 2015.
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- ^ Schmitt, Eric (30 November 2001). "Many Eager to Help, but Few Are Chosen". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Evidence by Sir Jock Stirrup to the Iraq Inquiry" (PDF). Iraq Inquiry. 1 February 2010. Retrieved 20 May 2012.
- ^ Jones, Sam (1 February 2010). "Troops sent to Iraq without sufficient body armour, Chilcot inquiry told". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 20 May 2012.
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- ^ "UK troops in Iraq moved to Kuwait". BBC. 28 July 2009. Retrieved 20 May 2012.
- ^ "Annual Chief of the Defence Staff Lecture". RUSI. 3 December 2009. Retrieved 20 May 2012.
- ^ Holt, Richard (25 October 2007). "Stirrup: 'No military solution in Afghanistan'". The Telegraph. London. Retrieved 20 May 2012.
- ^ "Loss of Support 'More Damaging Than Taliban'". Sky News. 3 December 2009. Retrieved 20 May 2012.
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- ^ "Queen's high honour for former Norfolk airman". ITV. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
- ^ "2014 Birthday Honours for service personnel and defence civilians". Ministry of Defence. 13 June 2014. Retrieved 22 June 2014.
- ^ "No. 60914". The London Gazette. 25 June 2014. p. 12558.
- ^ Dominiczak, Peter (19 October 2013). "Defence chiefs: War no time to worry about rights laws". The Telegraph. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
- TheGuardian.com. 7 August 2014. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
- ^ "Lord Stirrup". www.parliament.uk. Parliamentary Digital Service. Retrieved 10 October 2016.
- ^ "The Pilgrims". www.pilgrimsociety.org. The Pilgrims of Great Britain. Archived from the original on 31 October 2015. Retrieved 12 October 2016.
- ^ "Afghan and Iraq war memorial plan announced". 9 November 2014. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
- ^ "Fundraising Call for Memorial to Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans". 24 March 2015. Archived from the original on 11 September 2016. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
- ^ "Iraq and Afghanistan wars memorial unveiled - BBC News". Bbc.com. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
- ^ "Ex-Army Head: UK Should Consider Arming Ukraine". 4 July 2016. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
- ^ Stevenson, Alex (9 May 2012). "Queen's Speech sketch: Lords didn't bat an eyelid as Her Maj announced their demise". Politics.co.uk. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
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