http://www.albanianhistory.net/1953_Stirling/index.html

https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/19386/lot/396/

Lawrence called him Stirling the imperturbable. In T.E. Lawrence by his Friends, 1937, Stirling wrote of his time with Lawrence: 'From then [early 1918] throughout the final phase of the Arab revolt on till the capture of Damascus, I worked, travelled, and fought alongside Lawrence...We sensed that we were serving with a man immeasurably our superior...In my considered opinion, Lawrence was the greatest genius whom England has produced in the last two centuries...If ever a genius, a scholar, an artist, and an imp of Shaitan were rolled into one personality, it was Lawrence.'

Stirling served at the relief of Ladysmith, in the action at Laing's Nek and the operations in the Orange River Colony and the Transvaal in the Boer War. In 1906 he was seconded to the Egyptian Army and spent five years patrolling with an Arab battalion on the Eritrean and Abyssinian borders. In the First World War he served at Gallipoli in Egypt and the Palestinian campaign until he was appointed Chief Officer to Lawrence. In 1919 he was adviser to Emir Feisal and Deputy Political Oddicer in Cairo, then acting governor of Sinai and Governor of the Jaffa district in Palestine. In 1923 he became adviser to King Zog I. He collaborated with Alexander Korda on an unfinished film called Seven Pillars of Wisdom. In the Second World War he served in Damascus becoming the correspondent for The Times. He survived an assassination attempt in 1949 despite being riddled with bullets.

http://www.thepeerage.com/p58466.htm#i584651

Lt.-Col. Walter Francis Stirling was born on 31 January 1880. He was the son of Captain Francis Stirling and May Caroline Francis. He married Eileen Mary May Mackenzie-Edwards, daughter of Lt.-Col. (?) Mackenzie-Edwards, in 1920. He died on 22 February 1958 at age 78.

    He was educated at Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Berkshire, England. He fought in the Boer War, where he was mentioned in dispatches. He was awarded the Companion, Distinguished Service Order (D.S.O.) in 1902 and bar. He gained the rank of officer between 1906 and 1912 in the Egyptian Army.He fought in the First World War. He gained the rank of Observer in the Royal Flying Corps. He gained the rank of officer in the 1st Royal Dublin Fusiliers. He was Chief of Staff to T. E. Lawrence in the Arab Revolt. He was awarded the Military Cross (M.C.)1 He was Governor of Jaffa District, Palestine Administration between 1920 and 1923.1 He gained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. He was Advisor to the Government of Albania between 1923 and 1931. He was Governor of the Sinai Peninsula in 1930. He fought in the Second World War. He was Political Officer, North Frontier, Syria between 1941 and 1943. He was Times correspondent in Syria between 1947 and 1951. He wrote the book Safety Lost. Child of Lt.-Col. Walter Francis Stirling and Eileen Mary May Mackenzie-Edwards Elspeth Lettyr Stirling b. 1922

https://www.dnw.co.uk/news-and-events/latest-news/article.php?artic...

On 6 November 1949 Stirling invited into his house in Damascus three Arabs who knocked on his door and demanded to see him. He was reluctant to do so as it was a Sunday evening and he and his wife Marigold had two guests for dinner. But, believing that the men had information about the forthcoming Syrian election and keen to get a good story, he decided to talk to them. The men shot him six times and fled leaving the 69 year-old bleeding and losing consciousness. “Well I suppose I am dead or at least dying but I am damned if I feel like it,” Stirling later recalled thinking. He had been shot in the stomach, liver, chest and arms and one bullet had narrowly missed severing his jugular vein. By a miracle one of his dinner guests was a Syrian doctor called Ernest Altounyan who had arrived just 20 minutes before the shooting and emergency treatment from him and subsequent surgery saved his life although it proved impossible to extract four of the bullets. Stirling had a reputation as a tough character in Damascus and a few days later two Arabs were overheard discussing the attempted murder in a city café. One of them said: “Did they really think they could kill Colonel Stirling with only six shots?” The shooting remained a mystery for decades but two years ago a book alleged that the French government had orchestrated the attack because it suspected Stirling of being an anti-French spy.

Stirling was no stranger to either danger or tragedy. He was the son of a naval captain whose ship disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle just days after his birth in 1880. He was commissioned into the Royal Dublin Fusiliers and was awarded the

Distinguished Service Order for his gallantry in the Boer War. During the First World War he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps and survived a crash landing in the Sinai desert in Egypt. Returning to the Dublin Fusiliers he was buried alive at Gallipoli after a shell burst just above his head. He was then posted to British headquarters in Egypt and it was there that he met T.E. Lawrence, later known around the world as Lawrence of Arabia. By the time that he was ordered to join Lawrence and the forces of the Arab Revolt against the Turks as Chief Staff Officer, Stirling had already added the Military Cross to his array of decorations.

Lawrence described Stirling as “a skilled staff officer, tactful and wise” whose passion for horses enabled him to become friends with the Arab chiefs. Lawrence and Stirling planned and carried out numerous raids behind Turkish lines and on one occasion were taken prisoner by a patrol of the Bengal Lancers who did not speak English. They were only released when they met a British officer from the Indian Army regiment. Stirling was awarded a Bar to his DSO for securing the successful occupation of Damascus “in conjunction with another officer” – who was almost certainly Lawrence. He also received a string of foreign awards including the Order of El Nahda from the Arabs.

After the First World War, Stirling held a series of high level British military and administrative appointments in the Middle East and the Balkans, finally commanding the Military Headquarters of the 9th Army in Damascus in 1944-45. He settled there after retiring from the Army and, with his extensive local knowledge and contacts, was a natural choice to become the correspondent for The Times. However, after surviving the assassination attempt he wisely moved to Egypt and from there to Tangier in Morocco where he died in 1958.