Lieutenant General Sir Frederick William Stopford, KCB, KCMG, KCVO, British Army officer, dies in Marylebone, City of Westminster, Greater London, England, on May 4, 1929. He is best remembered for commanding the landing at Suvla Bay in August 1915, during the Gallipoli campaign, where he fails to order an aggressive exploitation of the initially successful landings.

Stopford is born in Dublin on February 2, 1854, a younger son of James Stopford, 4th Earl of Courtown, and his second wife Dora Pennefather, daughter of Edward Pennefather, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland.

Stopford is commissioned into the Grenadier Guards on October 28, 1871. He is appointed aide-de-camp to Sir John Miller Adye, chief of staff for the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, and takes part in the Battle of Tell El Kebir in 1882. He goes on to be aide-de-camp to Major General Arthur Fremantle, commander of the Suakin Expedition in 1885. He is then made brigade major for the Brigade of Guards, which has been posted to Egypt.

He returns to England to be brigade major of the 2nd Infantry Brigade at Aldershot in 1886. He becomes deputy assistant adjutant general at Horse Guards in 1892, and deputy assistant adjutant general at Aldershot in 1894. He takes part in the Fourth Anglo-Ashanti War in 1895 and becomes assistant adjutant general at Horse Guards in 1897.

Stopford takes part in the Second Boer War as military secretary to General Sir Redvers Buller and later military secretary to the general officer commanding Natal, for which he is knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George in November 1900. After his return to Britain, he is appointed deputy adjutant general at Aldershot in 1901, and chief staff officer for I Corps with the temporary rank of brigadier general, on April 1, 1902. Two years later, he is appointed director of military training at Horse Guards. Promoted to major general in February 1904, he is Major-General commanding the Brigade of Guards and general officer commanding (GOC) of the London District from 1906. He is promoted to lieutenant general in September 1909.

In October 1912, Stopford is made Lieutenant of the Tower of London, taking over the post from General Sir Henry Grant.

On August 5, 1914, a day after the British entry into World War I, he is appointed GOC First Army, part of Home Forces, a position he holds until he takes command of IX Corps the following year.

As GOC of IX Corps, Stopford is blamed for the failure to attack following the landing at Suvla Bay in August 1915, during the Gallipoli campaign. He chose to command the landing from HMS Jonquil, anchored offshore, but sleeps as the landing is in progress. He is quickly replaced on August 15 by Major-General Sir Julian Byng.

After almost 50 years of military service, Stopford retires from the army in 1920.

Stopford dies at the age of 75 on May 4, 1929, at Marylebone, City of Westminster, Greater London, England. He is buried in the Holy Trinity and St. Andrew’s Churchyard in Ashe, Basingstoke and Deane borough, Hampshire, England.