[1] His first marriage was dissolved and his second was to Adele Mason who sings lead soprano in opera.

[3][4] After Lincolnshire, Stockdale moved to East Sussex where his plans for the renovation of Eastwood Farm by Robert Adam were approved on appeal.

In the 1979 general election he stood as the Democratic Labour candidate in Lincoln, where he came fourth with 4.1 per cent of the vote; the sitting Labour MP, Margaret Jackson, who had defeated Taverne in the October 1974 general election, lost her seat.

[8] In an analysis of the voting in the election, Ivor Crewe, Director of the British Election Study, stated that the presence of Stockdale (and fellow Democratic Labour candidate Cyril Nottingham in Brigg and Scunthorpe) "splintered enough of the Labour vote... to allow the Conservatives to gain both seats".

[9] Stockdale joined the Social Democratic Party (SDP) on its foundation in 1981, and stood again in Lincoln as its candidate in the general election two years later, achieving 25 per cent of the vote and third place.