The story of David Stirling is well known. He was one of the founders of the SAS, and he owned a wartime reputation as the Phantom Major which has been written about at length. To this day this legendary status persists although some writers now doubt the authenticity of some of those wartime claims. Stirling’s wartime experience was cut short when he was captured by the Germans in 1943 and endured an extended period of incarceration in Navi Prison Camp and in the infamous Colditz Castle. After the war he left the Army in 1947 but retrained to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the reserves until 1965. This article is primarily about Stirling’s life and career after the Second World War.
Steve Prout explains.
David Stirling during World War 2.
Liberation and return to England
Following liberation from his wartime captivity, Striling returned to England. He played no further part in the SAS or indeed any other active service. His tried numerous attempts to rejoin his regiment but he was unsuccessful, meeting subtle rejection from senor military command. He tried unsuccessfully to use some of his more influential contacts such as Randolph and Winston Churchill to argue his case, but again this was without success. His political connections had lost their value because Churchill had now lost the 1945 election to Clement Atlee and now no longer held power.
None of this prevented Stirling from trying to get back into his old fold but times had moved on. Whilst the war with Japan was continuing he presented plans to create a new branch of the SAS trained specifically to fight in Asia where the war with Japan continued. Without doubt he viewed that theatre of war as his last chance of action and to prove himself.
The proposal was to create and train a specific unit comprising of US personnel to operate inside China using tactics he adopted during his time on SAS operations. This plan however was not enthusiastically received by his superiors. Mountbatten, the Supreme Allied Commander, of British forces in East Asia did not see the value in Stirling’s proposal and his opinions held the most weight. Although there was some marginal support from a Major General Richard Gale of the US 1st Airbourne Corps, the idea never progressed. Stirling’s military career and his part in the war was now finished. It was time to redefine himself.
Creating a Legend
David Stirling was to become more widely known as the Phantom Major. It was not until the late 1950s that the legend of David Stirling, The Phantom Major was created and firmly established in the public’s eye and imagination. Up until now his wartime exploits were limited to a scattering of wartime newspaper articles and little more but he would now recycle those stories and with the help of an author create that legend. After the death of fellow SAS member and legend Paddy Mayne, there was an opportune moment to create this new image without any serious challenge to the authenticity of those accounts.
It was American writer and journalist Virginia Cowles, an American who published the book “The Phantom Major” in May 1958, who created Stirling’s reinvention. Several critics were not convinced about Stirling’s claims, which some would later point out contained various deliberate omissions in his accounts and elaborations. Many close to Stirling, like his brother Bill and his mother, chose to remain silent on the topic. The controversies of David Stirling’s SAS career are covered in some depth in “The Phoney Major” and is not the focus here.
Although the book received some criticism by eminent military historians such as Liddell-Hart, none of this mattered as the book captured the imagination and approval of its intended audience, the British public. Either way a legend was created and Stirling’s career in the following decades then took some quite different twists and turns, none stranger that Capricorn Africa and GB75.
Capricorn Africa
Stirling first went into business by establishing two fish and chip shops that allegedly employed former service men, and both ventures were short lived and unsuccessful. Stirling then emigrated to Rhodesia where he chased a variety of business opportunities. He also needed to find his own success story and make a name for himself because he always felt overshadowed by his brother Bill Stirling. To exacerbate matters he initially needed the financial support of his more successful brother. This need for support would persist quietly.
Once he arrived in Africa 1949 Stirling co-founded the Capricorn Africa Society. Its aim was to fight racial discrimination in Africa. This goal and the organizations other goals were overly ambitious. The organization did not get any support from the government at the time and Britain was still clinging to its last colonial possessions and an empire that which was fast becoming untenable. External matters would continually challenge the organization. However, there were internal issues too.
The mission of Capricorn Africa was too grandiose to ever expect success. The organization’s manifesto in 1952 stated that the prime objective was to abolish racial discrimination on all levels. Secondly, to preserve what is best in the culture of all races. Thirdly, establish common patriotism for all races. Fourthly, secure the adoption of a written constitution. These nebulous goals were backed by a claim that “all men whatever race are born equal in dignity.” These were all commendable, but the organization had no plan or support to achieve this.
There were also doubts on Stirling’s ability to carry this scheme through. Furthermore, there existed a general suspicion by Africans that this was an elaborate plan for the British to maintain its colonial hold in Africa. By 1954 Stirling, once a media wartime favorite, was faced with numerous unfavorable criticisms that his “head was in the clouds” and he was “not the right man for freedom in Africa”. Various newspapers such as The Times published the opinion that the aims of this society were simply a veneer for an “Empire Building Project” which “did not have the best of intentions for Africa.” The plan was big in so much as it wanted to incorporate twenty-five million Africans of Rhodesia, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanganyika into one national state. It was incredulous. It was grandiose. It was unwelcome by the Africans, and it was too overly complex. It was above all impossible.
Within the organization the members had different ideas on what defined equality and what qualified the ordinary African for enfranchisement. Some in the organization declared quite arrogantly that the African had to be “deemed civilized” before any semblance of equality or the entitlement to vote could even be considered or granted. Obviously, this offensive statement evoked old imperial condescension and immediately derailed any genuine attempts to change Africa’s future not least win any support, if indeed the plans had any genuine buy in from the onset. Whether Stirling truly was on board with the concept, or it was to serve his own vanity we will never know but the whole project quickly failed with Stirling’s resignation as Chairman in 1959. The Organization soon disbanded to no surprise. Stirling would later admit to journalist Gavin Young that his decade that he spent in Rhodesia achieved nothing. In his own words “Capricorn was Utopia. Almost Walter Mitty.” He concluded by admitting, “We were a total failure.” Stirling turned his attention to something else with which he was familiar.
Military Contracting (PMC) and Watchguard International Ltd
Stirling next entered the world of private military contracting or to be more precise he developed the concept itself. He was credited by Christian Baghai as the founder of Private Military Contracting, an industry that that has grown in recent years and is now a billion-dollar business used by all military organizations and governments alike. Ukraine’s current war gives us a recent example with the questionable use of the Russian Wagner Group and the USA has Acadami (formerly Blackwater). Currently this industry is worth now $224 billion with expansion set to double. This industry all started with David Stirling.
Stirling formed other organizations such as KAS International and KAS Enterprises, all of which took advantage and profited from the political upheaval of the post-colonial situation in Africa and the knock-on effect of the Cold War. Military services were now about to become privatized. Africa and the Middle East would be Stirling’s primary focus for his organizations.
His most renowned creation was the company called Watchguard International Ltd. This was formed in 1965 along with fellow director John Woodhouse (also an SAS veteran) and was based out of Sloane Square, London. Watchguard lasted until 1972 when Woodhouse resigned following a disagreement with Stirling. The companies first assignment was in Yemen. At the time Yemen was in the throes of civil war. The task for Watchguard was not so much combative but to observe, report and advise on the condition of the Yemen’s Royalist forces. John Woodhouse was sent by Stirling to tend to this task. Simultaneously, Stirling was also secretly networking with Iranian officials for assignments, as the country was also in a state of turmoil. However, such is the secrecy of this industry the exact details are not known but the salient point is the genus of a new industry that grew far beyond no doubt even David Stirling’s expectations.
Over time Stirling would become involved in all kinds of activities such as brokering arms deals in the Gulf states and training forces in Zambia and Sierra Leone. The specific details behind these operations will never be known with any certainty. Of course, PMC activity attracts various opinions concerning ethical matters and Stirling did not escape that as we will see later.
At one point Stirling’s activities in Yemen 1966 irked members of the British Royal family and earned him the disdain of the SAS who did not welcome the publicity from his activities. This incident took place during a flight from Yemen where Stirling created a furor over the Sultan receiving a second-class seat on a flight to Britain whilst on the same flight Princess Maragaret was present in first class. He termed it a snub without properly establishing the facts and caused an embarrassment in high social circles. It was one of many faux pas he would be notorious for.
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The Libyan Affair
In 1970 Stirling became involved with a plot to destabilize and remove Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi (1942-2011) who had just taken power. At the time, the West was not certain if Libya’s leader remaining in power would serve the interests of the Western world. According to later sources, the CIA and MI6 had requested that a group of mercenaries set about the task of removing the Libyan dictator. By using mercenaries, the CIA and MI6 could typically deny all culpability and involvement, at least at a certain level.
According to an account by a Peter McAleese who served in the SAS in the 1960s, twenty mercenaries gathered in a Knightsbridge flat in summer 1970. The plans were presented by Stirling to his chosen men. They were to land on Libyan shores by boat from Italy and make their way to Tripoli. They were then then to carry out an assault on a specific location which was at a prison called “the Hilton.” The objective was the liberation of one hundred and fifty imprisoned political prisoners who, once liberated, would set in motion a chain of events to oust the new leader.
The US subsequently changed its mind after they realized that Gaddafi was just as hostile to the USSR as he was the West, at least that was the “lie of the land” in 1970 - the situation would dramatically change in the 1980s. Rather than risk further instability and potential Soviet influence the USA decided the Libyan dictator should be left alone and the regime should be left to its own devices and ordered the mission be abandoned. The British and MI6 decided otherwise and proceeded with developing the plan with the French. The whole matter was kept quietly concealed.
Stirling allegedly was not so discreet and at Whites gentlemen’s club in London was openly sharing the details of this operation. In December 1970, the British, following Stirling’s indiscretions, were forced to call off the operation, but Stirling proceeded nonetheless. The whole affair was halted by Italian authorities in January 1971. The boat was seized and the men detained. By now Stirling had irked the combined patience of MI6, the CIA and Mossad. Three years later, in May 1973, this debacle was exposed in the Observer newspaper. Stirling did not cover himself in glory, but worse reputational damage was still to come.
His activities in his Private Military enterprises did not attract the approval of the very organization he founded, the SAS. In the 1970s the reputation of that organization reached a low point. Incidents in Northern Ireland had given certain newspapers and the left wing of British politics ample material to accuse the SAS of being government assassins and accusing them of being above accountability, an accusation that was naturally denied. However, Stirling’s preference for hiring ex-SAS personnel and in some cases and sometimes serving officers for his PMC assignments did not help. It merely put his own coveted regiment on a par with hired mercenaries in the public mind much to the chagrin of his former regiment. The regiment was tarnished with a mockery of its own motto “Who Pays, Wins.”
GB75
GB75 was another proposal of David Stirling devised in the summer of 1974. It was a proposal to counter suspected left wing insurrectionist organizations or at least certain sections who genuinely believed that they existed. Britain was becoming subjected to regular trade union strikes and the disruption that ensued was causing alarm. Those with political right-wing tendencies believed that the country was on the brink of insurrection and the Labour Government under Wilson had lost all control. Trade Unions, it seemed, had the country in a vulnerable position.
Stirling was one those who believed that this was the case and GB75 was his response. It caused a stir. Stirling’s plan was simple, the organization was to recruit handpicked likeminded individuals that would be ready to stand by to ensure the continuation of essential services by seizing (in an unspecified manner) and maintain sections of the country’s infrastructure such as the power stations. In some minds the country was on the brink of a form of anarchy. It was truly a bizarre time in British modern history. Of course, nothing of the sort transpired.
The public perception of this organization blew out of all proportion. It was inaccurately reported that the aim of Stirling’s GB75 was to remove the Labour government, which was viewed as a destabilizing presence to the status quo, replace it with a provisional ruling body (unspecified) and undermine the growing power of the Trade Unions. This view, which was leaked to the British newspapers, was a combination of fear and overactive imaginations. Striling was forced to go the press and clarify his position. This can still be found and listened to today. The interview went as follows (word for word):
"Our plan is limited....and this has always been stated to provide Government, to make available to government, whatever type of Government it is... Socialist, or Liberal, or Conservative, or coalition.... with volunteers, trained and capable of running the minimum power required out of the generating stations to keep certain essential basic services going. They would, of course, act under police escort. And we would not, or course, make a move...and some of the papers have deliberately ignored this... until we had been invited to do so by the Government of the day. Now what we propose to do, as I say, is to have enough trained volunteers to cope with sewage disposal...nobody wants that on the streets while they are negotiating with the trade unions…to keep the water supply going...being pumped. And we would hope to help maintain the refrigeration at the major food depots in the country. I do not expect to be able to cope effectively until toward the end of December. I believe that the crunch is expected to come some time in February or March."
This emergency never happened and so GB75 never came to be nor had it any chance of becoming mobilized. The British Conservative Party did not welcome Stirling’s proposals, and this was simply another example of his established track record of embarrassing the British Government. Only a small minority of Conservatives, who happened to be friends of Stirling’s, supported him. Fearing political isolation and further fading of his albeit diminished political currency, Stirling resigned. The organization continued without him until the following year in 1975.
Stirling would involve himself further in other organizations along a similar theme such as TRUEMID (Movement for True Industrial Democracy) and the Better Britain Society that promoted ambitious but nebulous aims such as Trade Union Control and Constitutional changes. All of this was above Stirling’s head and his competency. None of these originations gained any momentum or traction. This cemented Gavin Young’s opinion that Stirling’s ideas “seem a bit dotty” echoing Field Marshall Montgomery’s wartime assessment of Stirling being “mad, quite mad.” Nevertheless, his legend in the common man’s eye still lay intact.
Into retirement
In the final decade before his death in the 1980s David Stirling penned a few forewords in various publications. It was a last effort to keep his legend alive on the back of the successes his former regiment earned in the Iranian Embassy siege in 1980 and the Falklands War two years later. His authority on the subjects began to be questioned and doubted but his legendary status was now fully entrenched and solid in the public eye. Such books included Parachute Padre and Rogue Warrior: The Blair Mayne Legend (to which Stirling’s wording was restrained for fear of diminishing his own precariously shining light).
There were further failed operations with one of his other enterprises, KAS Enterprises. He was tasked in 1987 by Prince Bernard of the Netherlands, also president of the World Wildlife Fund, to investigate and tackle the illegal hunting of rhinoceros horns. It required the skills of such experienced SAS men. After being funded half a million pounds the whole operation failed dismally, leaving various questions on missing funds, equipment and of course the fate of the rhino horns. In 1989 after its sponsor, Prince Bernhard, withdrew support the company folded with a report citing these dubious circumstances. Allegedly Stirling himself lost significant amounts of his own money, closing off yet again another unsuccessful adventure to his career.
Conclusion
The post war era did little to David Stirling’s career or reputation. His failures clearly hurt his ego, and his one compensation was to create himself as a legend. The authenticity of this legendary status has since been challenged, especially in the publication of the book “The Phantom Major.”
He was a complex man. He has been labelled as a hero, legend, narcissist, failure, success, dangerous, mad, and dotty. Anyone can and everyone does have a perspective. Certainly, he was not shy to publicity in conflict with the values of the SAS, his very organization. This clearly irked them as it does today, when former serving soldiers make public revelations.
Success eluded Stirling as the post war decades rolled on. His attempts to re-enter his regiment failed and subsequent socio-political ventures were unsuccessful such as Capricorn Africa. His greatest success in the post war world was the establishment of Watchguard International Ltd. It marked the beginning of Private Military Contracting. Despite the ethical and moral criticisms, he once again pioneered a new way of miliary thinking – The Private Military Contractor Industry. That industry would proceed to grow beyond all expectations long after Stirling’s death and participate in modern warfare. Stirling only witnesses his failures - he did not live long enough to see this industry grow.
Stirling was awarded the Knights Bachelor in 1990 that he could add to his OBE from 1946. He was a complex man whom history holds a bloated version and his achievements. Some hold negative views of him and question the veracity of his accomplishments. None the less his contribution to SAS history prevails.
In the 1980s he struggled to maintain his relevancy by relying on his well-worn self-created legend, a legend that either some doubt or temper according to new revelations. No matter the view or how much or little the role he played, he was part of the genesis of the SAS. Shortly after he was awarded the Knights Bachelor, he sadly passed away with his place in history be it controversial, questionable, or otherwise assured. His life after the war was an interesting one.
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Sources
The Phantom Major
David Stirling and the Genesis of Private Military Companies – Christian Baghai May 2023 _ Medium Website Blog
Terry Aspinall Remembers – www.mercenary wars.co.uk
The Black Market for Force - War History Website
Endangered Archives Programme – Capricorn Africa (1952-57) – eap.bl.uk
Capricorn-David Stirling’s Second African Campaign – Richard Hughes – Radcliffe Pres 2003
