Walter Stirling

Captain Sir Walter Stirling (18 May 1718 – 24 November 1786) was a captain in the Royal Navy.

Naval career Born in 1718, Walter Stirling entered the Royal Navy. He was made "The Regulating Captain of the Impress at the Tower". On 30 October 1753 he married Dorothy Willing, the daughter of Charles Willing, a Philadelphia merchant. According to family stories, he persuaded the family of Horatio Nelson to let Horatio join the navy, and he lost the opportunity to be appointed Governor of Halifax as he was visiting his wife in Scotland when the offer came in. In 1780 he was captain of the Gibraltar, and was present when Admiral George Rodney captured the island of Sint Eustatius from the Dutch during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War. Selected to take home dispatches, he was knighted on arrival. In 1783 he appointed Commander-in-Chief, The Nore.