Admiral Edward Stafford Fitzherbert, 13th Baron Stafford, KCB

Order of the Bath

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...

 (17 April 1864 – 28 September 1941) was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 peer

Peerage

The Peerage is a legal system of largely hereditary titles in the United Kingdom, which constitute the ranks of British nobility and is part of the British honours system...

, holding the title Baron Stafford

Baron Stafford

The title Baron Stafford, referring to Stafford, has been created several times in the Peerage of England. In the 14th century, the barons of the 1st creation were made earls. Those of the fifth creation, in the century became first viscounts and then earls....

. He was also a Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 officer who went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Cape of Good Hope Station

Cape of Good Hope Station

The Cape of Good Hope Station was one of the geographical divisions into which the British Royal Navy divided its worldwide responsibilities. It was formally the units and establishments responsible to the Commander-in-Chief, Cape of Good Hope....

.

Naval career

Edward's father was Basil Thomas Fitzherbert and his mother was Emily Charlotte Stafford-Jerningham. He joined the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 in 1877. Promoted to Captain

Captain (naval)

Captain is the name most often given in English-speaking navies to the rank corresponding to command of the largest ships. The NATO rank code is OF-5, equivalent to an army full colonel....

 in 1904, he was given command of the battleship

Battleship

A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...

 HMS Albemarle

HMS Albemarle (1901)

HMS Albemarle was a pre-Dreadnought Duncan-class battleship of the Royal Navy, named after George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle.-Technical Description:...

, of the training ship HMS Impegnable

HMS Howe (1860)

HMS Howe was built as a 121-gun screw first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She and her sister HMS Victoria were the first and only British three-decker ships of the line to be designed from the start for screw propulsion, but the Howe was never completed for sea service as she had...

 and then of the armoured cruiser HMS Bedford

HMS Bedford (1901)

HMS Bedford was a Monmouth-class armoured cruiser of 9,800 tons displacement, of the British Royal Navy. Built by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co Ltd, Govan, she was launched on 31 August 1901. She only spent nine years in service before she was wrecked on 21 August 1910 off Quelport...

 which ran aground during sea trials in 1910.

He served in World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 as Director of Mines and Torpedoes from October 1915 and as Commander-in-Chief, Cape of Good Hope Station

Cape of Good Hope Station

The Cape of Good Hope Station was one of the geographical divisions into which the British Royal Navy divided its worldwide responsibilities. It was formally the units and establishments responsible to the Commander-in-Chief, Cape of Good Hope....

 from May 1918. He became a full Admiral on retirement in 1925.

It was through his mother's side of the family that he gained the Stafford barony in 1932; his brother Francis Fitzherbert-Stafford, 12th Baron Stafford

Francis Fitzherbert-Stafford, 12th Baron Stafford

Francis Edward Fitzherbert-Stafford, 12th Baron Stafford was an English peer, holding the title Baron Stafford. His lifetime marked the point where the Stafford barony first came into contact with Fitzherbert as a surname....

 had died without issue in 1932. Fitzherbert-Stafford also descended from Genoese

Genoa

Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....

 nobility as his great grandfather was John Vincent Gandolfi, 12th Marquis Gandolfi. Fitzherbert did not marry and died without issue, the barony thus passed on to his nephew Basil Fitzherbert, 14th Baron Stafford. He died at the family seat of Swynnerton Hall

Swynnerton Hall

Swynnerton Hall is a 17th century country mansion house, the home of Lord Stafford, situated at Swynnerton near Stone , Staffordshire. It is a Grade I listed building....

at age 77.