Background
Stagg was born in Dalkeith, Scotland to Alexander and Ellen Stagg.
Stagg was born in Dalkeith, Scotland to Alexander and Ellen Stagg.
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 and appointed the chief meteorological officer for Operation Overlord. Stagg was the senior staff meteorologist working with input from three separate forecasting teams from the Royal Navy, Met Office and United States Army Air Force. 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.
He was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath (Central Bank) in the 1954 New Year Honours. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1951 and elected as president of the Royal Meteorological Society in 1959.
Stagg was portrayed by Patrick Barr in the 1962 film The Longest Day and David Haig in his own 2014 play Pressure.
Royal Society of Edinburgh.