I never knew him, so am happy to accept that as a person, he is an all-round good egg.
However, he was also the man who presided over the growth of the black hole in the procurement budget to the tune of £38 Bn. Not once did we hear a peep out of him on this. Never did he get together with the PUS, get SofS onside, and force the issue with the Service Chiefs. He led bad corporate behaviour in the same fashion as Adam Applegarth at Northern Rock or Fred Goodwin at RBS.
The reason we ended up ploughing £4 Bn into MRA4 and signing contracts such as HPAC for Harrier, was that no-one had done the strategic leadership thing and looked ahead. It wasn't innately difficult to see the looming problem, but it required true character to deal with it. Instead, Stirrup kept quiet and went with the flow. In my view, that makes him culpable.