| abstract | - Air Chief Marshal Graham Eric "Jock" Stirrup, Baron Stirrup, (born 4 December 1949) is a former senior Royal Air Force commander, who was the Chief of the Defence Staff from 2006 until his retirement in late 2010. He is now a Crossbench member of the House of Lords. In April 2013, he was appointed Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter by the Queen Elizabeth II. As a junior RAF officer, he was a fast jet pilot, seeing action in the Dhofar War. Later in his career, Stirrup commanded No. 2 Squadron and RAF Marham. After several senior air force appointments, Stirrup was made the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Strike Command and during this time he served as the first commander of British forces engaged in fighting the Taliban. In 2002, Stirrup was appointed the Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff responsible for equipment and capability and was heavily involved in procuring equipment for the invasion of Iraq. Spending a little over a year in that role, he was then appointed the Chief of the Air Staff, in which capacity he served from 2003 to 2006. He became Chief of the Defence Staff in 2006: during his time in office the British Armed Forces faced significant commitments both to Iraq (Operation Telic) and Afghanistan (Operation Herrick). Stirrup retired as Chief of the Defence Staff on 29 October 2010 and was succeeded by General Sir David Richards, the former Chief of the General Staff.
|
