James Martin Stagg - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Group Captain

Group captain is a senior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many other Commonwealth countries. It ranks above wing commander and immediately below air commodore...

Sir James Martin Stagg, CB

-Architectural/engineering:* Block coefficient , determining fullness of ship's hull* Chrysler Building, a skyscraper in New York City, New York* Concrete block/cinder block, also breeze block [UK], foundation block [US], see concrete masonry unit...

, OBE, FRSE (30 June 1900 - 23 June 1975) was a British Royal Air Force

Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

meteorologist who notably persuaded General Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...

to change the date of the Allied invasion of Europe in World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, from June 5 to June 6, 1944.

Stagg was born in Dalkeith, Scotland. In 1924, he became an assistant in the British Meteorological Office and was superintendent of the Kew Gardens observatory in 1939. In 1943, he was commissioned a Group Captain in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve

Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve

The Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve consists of a number of groupings of individual military reservists for the management and operation of the Royal Air Force's Air Training Corps and CCF Air Cadet formations, Volunteer Gliding Squadrons , Air Experience Flights, and also to form the...

and appointed the chief meteorological officer for Operation Overlord

Operation Overlord

Operation Overlord was the code name for the Battle of Normandy, the operation that launched the invasion of German-occupied western Europe during World War II by Allied forces. The operation commenced on 6 June 1944 with the Normandy landings...

. Stagg was the senior staff meteorologist working with input from three separate forecasting teams from 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...

, Met Office

Met Office

The Met Office , is the United Kingdom's national weather service, and a trading fund of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills...

and USAAF. The detailed history of the forecasts is subject to disagreement in the accounts published by participants, including Stagg himself.

Stagg later worked as director of services at the Meteorological Office until 1960.

For his invaluable services during the planning of D-Day, Stagg was appointed an Officer of the US Legion of Merit in 1945 and was also appointed an OBE at the same time; he was knighted in 1954 and also appointed a CB that year. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh

Royal Society of Edinburgh

The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity, operating on a wholly independent and non-party-political basis and providing public benefit throughout Scotland...

in 1951 and elected as president of the Royal Meteorological Society

Royal Meteorological Society

The Royal Meteorological Society traces its origins back to 3 April 1850 when the British Meteorological Society was formed as a society the objects of which should be the advancement and extension of meteorological science by determining the laws of climate and of meteorological phenomena in general...

in 1959.

Stagg was portrayed by Patrick Barr

Patrick Barr

Patrick David Barr was a British film and television actor.Born in Akola, India, Patrick Barr went from stage to screen with The Merry Men of Sherwood . He spent the 1930s playing various beneficent authority figures and "reliable friend" types...

in the 1962 film The Longest Day
The Longest Day (film)
The Longest Day is a 1962 war film based on the 1959 history book The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan, about "D-Day", the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, during World War II....

.

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