The Rutherford Laboratory came into being in 1957 with Gerry Pickavance as the first Director and Stafford as the Head of the Proton Linear Accelerator (PLA) Group. The PLA achieved its first full energy beam in 1959. By 1963 with the PLA a well established machine he became responsible for the high energy physics programme for the Nimrod (synchrotron). Stafford became Deputy Director on 1 April 1966. He has had close association with CERN, where he participated in the SC polarization experiment and various committee work, and was a keen supporter of the idea of a European Physical Society and became a Member of the Steering Committee for its formation. He later acted as Scientific Secretary to the Organising Committee for the inaugural meeting of the Society which was held in Florence in April 1969. He succeeded Gerry Pickavance in 1969 as director of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.