David Stirling Colonel Sir Archibald David Stirling , DSO , 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 , Perthshire . 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 tall ) , he was training to climb Mount Everest when World War II broke out . Raised in the Roman Catholic faith of his mother , he attended the Benedictine Ampleforth College . 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 stealthily entered 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 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 61 officers 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 check posts 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 own brother Bill Stirling along with 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 reputedly 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 . Along with several associates , Stirling 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 linked , along with Denys Rowley , to a failed attempt to overthrow Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi in 1970 or 1971 . Stirling was the founder of private military company KAS International ( aka KAS Enterprises ) . Watchguard International Ltd was a private military compan , y registered in Jersey in 1965 by Stirling and John Woodhouse . Woodhouse ' s first assignment was to go to Yemen to report on the state of the royalist forces when a cease - fire was declared . At the same time Stirling was cultivating his contacts in the Iranian government and exploring the chances of obtaining work in Africa . The company did operate in Zambia and in Sierra Leone , providing training teams and advising on security matters , but its founder ' s maverick ways of doing business caused its eventual downfall . Woodhouse resigned as Director of Operations after a series of disagreements and Stirling himself ceased to take an active part in 1972 Great Britain 75 . In mid - 1970s 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 1970s 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 Kathleen Mary " Kate " Losinska ( OBE ; died 16 October 2013 ) , who was Head of the Civil and Public Services Association . Funding for this " operation " came primarily from his friend Sir James Goldsmith . 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 , among 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 country - wide strikes - by taking over governmental operations . 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 . Honours . He was knighted in 1990 , and died later that year 11 days before his 75th birthday . 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 . Additional reading .