William Stafford (British Army officer)

Brigadier-General William Francis Howard Stafford CB (19 December 1854 – 8 August 1942)[1] was a British Army officer who served with the Royal Engineers in various campaigns in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

[5] Stafford's mother, Emily Mary (c.1832–1909) was the daughter of Major Gavin Young, Judge Advocate General with the East India Company.

[1] At this time, the Royal Engineers were among the top football teams in England, having reached the final of the first FA Cup tournament in 1872 and again two years later, finishing on both occasions as runners-up.

Shortly after the equaliser, Lt. Ruck collided with Cuthbert Ottaway who was forced to leave the field with a serious ankle injury; in his absence, the Old Boys were regarded as fortunate to have held on for a 1–1 draw.

[2] During the second campaign, he was assistant field engineer with the Khyber Line Force under Brigadier-General Charles Arbuthnot,[22] when he took part in the advance to Kata Sang in late 1879, and in December was present at Pezwan during the disturbances there, before accompanying the Hissarak valley expedition in April 1880.

[22] Stafford returned to Afghanistan with the Bengal Sappers & Miners in April 1881, as part of the Second Column of the Mahsud-Waziri Expeditionary Force under the command of Brigadier-General John James Hood Gordon.

[24] This was an attempt to subdue the Waziri tribesman who had frequently attacked the British settlement at Tank close to the Indian border with Afghanistan, the "North-West Frontier".

[22] In October 1882, Stafford returned to England,[22] taking up the post of Assistant Instructor in Survey at the School of Military Engineering at Chatham in March 1883, despite still being a subaltern.

[33] He was restored to full pay on 8 August 1906, when he was appointed Chief Engineer for the Southern Command based at Salisbury, gaining the temporary rank of Brigadier-General on 5 October 1907.

[36] Following the outbreak of the First World War, Stafford offered his services to the army, and on 6 June 1915, he was appointed Officer Commanding South Irish Coastal Defences, based at Victoria Barracks, Cork, with the rank of brigadier-general.

Stafford appointed his aide-de-camp, Captain F. W. Dickie, to negotiate terms with Mac Curtain for the temporary surrender of his forces' weapons to enable the hall to be vacated.