Admiral of the Fleet Sir Stafford Fairborne (1666 – 11 November 1742) was a Royal Navy officer and Whig politician.

[3] Fairborne served as part of the naval brigade under the Duke of Marlborough at the siege of Cork in September 1690 during the Williamite War in Ireland before commanding the third-rate HMS Elizabeth at the Battle of Barfleur in May 1692.

[1] He commanded the third-rate HMS Monck in the fleet under Sir George Rooke, which while in charge of the Smyrna convoy, was scattered by the French at the Battle of Lagos off Cape St. Vincent in June 1693.

After receiving the Freedom of the City of Cork,[4] he was given command of the inshore squadron, with his flag in the first-rate HMS St George, in a fleet sent to the Mediterranean in Summer 1702 during the War of the Spanish Succession.

After the battle he was tasked with assisting Sir Cloudesley Shovell to bring the prizes home delivering a squadron of them safely to Spithead in November 1702.

[2] Promoted to vice-admiral on 6 May 1703, Fairborne became Third-in-Command, with his flag in the second-rate HMS Association, serving under Shovell in the Mediterranean Fleet with orders to annoy the enemy, assist the allies and protect English trade.

[6] The ship was caught in the great storm of December 1703 and, having been torn from her anchor at Gunfleet Sands, was blown across the North Sea to the coast of the Netherlands in dreadful conditions which resulted in the loss of 28 lives from exposure and exhaustion.

[2] That year he financed the laying of a new pavement outside Rochester Guildhall, the commemorative stone for which still remains in place on the front of the building.

[2] He was offered a post as commissioner for disbanding the marines in 1713 but refused it in the vain hope that he would one day return to senior office in the Admiralty.