| Code | DS/UK/59 |
| Dates | 1877-1957 |
| Person Name | Stopford; Viscount; James Richard Neville (1877-1957); Earl of Courtown; Assistant Secretary of the Imperial War Graves Commission |
| Surname | Stopford |
| Forenames | James Richard Neville |
| PreTitle | Viscount |
| Title | Earl of Courtown |
| Epithet | Assistant Secretary of the Imperial War Graves Commission |
| Source | CWGC Archive, 839, Stopford J.R.N., 07/12/1919 - 12/02/1940; "Dod's Peerage, 1918", (London: Butler and Tanner, 1918) |
| Biographical Note | Viscount James Richard Neville Stopford, Earl of Courtown, was the Assistant Secretary of the Imperial War Graves Commission after the First World War.
James Richard Neville Stopford was born on 16 September 1877.
He was educated at Eton. Stopford married Cicely, daughter of the late John Arden Birch, on 26 April 1905. During the First World War, he was first commissioned as a Captain on the Special List for the Graves Registration Commission on 30th September 1915. From 1 December 1916 until 29 September 1918. He was mentioned in dispatches in November 1916 and also awarded the South African (Queen’s) Medal.
Stopford was demobilised with the rank of Major on 23 January 1921 and subsequently appointed as Assistant Secretary of the Imperial War Graves Commission. In 1928, Stopford embarked on a pilgrimage to Gallipoli and produced a report on the condition of cemeteries there. Stopford was placed on a part-time contract from 1 April 1929 until 30 June 1929. He was then re-employed from 14 April 1932 until 14 May 1932 in connection with the unveiling ceremonies for the Memorials to the Missing at Arras and Thiepval. He was later employed in August 1932 as the ceremonies were postponed until then, due to the assassination of the French president Paul Doumer on 6 May 1932.
Viscount Stopford died in 1957. |