Lieutenant-General Sir Anthony David Pigott, KCB, CBE (23 December 1944 – 19 March 2020)[1] was a British Army officer. He also served as Independent Member of Steering Board at the Intellectual Property Office.
Sir Anthony Pigott | |
|---|---|
| Born | 23 December 1944 Rawalpindi, India |
| Died | 19 March 2020 (aged 75) |
| Allegiance |  United Kingdom |
| Service |  British Army |
| Years of service | 1965–2003 |
| Rank | Lieutenant General |
| Commands | Staff College, Camberley |
| Battles / wars | Iraq War |
| Awards | Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath Commander of the Order of the British Empire |
Early life
editPigott was the son of Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Pigott RADC and Mollie Pigott, an officer in the Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps.[2]
Military career
editEducated at St George's College, Weybridge, and Trinity College, Cambridge,[2] Pigott was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1965.[3] As a major, he commanded a squadron of 38 Engineer Regiment at Ripon, in which role he was deployed to Belize in 1976 to build a camp from which local soldiers could defend the area against attack from Guatemala.[2] In 1977 he was deployed to Bradford as Chief Fire Officer, West Yorkshire during the Firemen's Strike and then went on to become military assistant to the Vice-Chief of the General Staff.[2] As a brigadier he played a key role in establishing the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps ('ARRC') and then, as a major-general, he became the first Chief of Staff of the ARRC in 1992.[2] He was deployed to Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina when the ARRC took the lead in the United Nations Protection Force.[2]
He became Commandant of the Staff College, Camberley, in 1994 and Director-General, Doctrine and Development in 1997.[4] From 2000 he served as Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Commitments) with responsibility for planning and executing the invasion of Afghanistan.[5] He retired in 2003.[4]
Later life
editAfter retiring from the Armed Forces, Pigott took a position of Independent Member of Steering Board at the Intellectual Property Office.[6]
On 4 December 2009, Pigott gave evidence to The Iraq Inquiry.[7] From his evidence, it emerged that he chaired an informal working group in the Ministry of Defence in mid-2002 to explore possibilities for British military involvement in an invasion of Iraq and its possible repercussions. He told the inquiry that his aim was to avoid a poorly planned "off-the-cuff" campaign.[8]
Family
editIn 1981, he married Felicity Ann Astley-Cooper.[9] They had three children including a daughter, Anna, who married Simon Hervé Marie Ghislain, Prince de Merode, son of Léonel Amaury Marie Ghislain, Prince de Merode, in September 2010.[10]
References
edit- ^ "PIGOTT - Deaths Announcements - Telegraph Announcements". announcements.telegraph.co.uk.
- ^ a b c d e f "Lieutenant-General Sir Anthony Pigott obituary". The Times. 2 May 2020. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
- ^ "No. 43576". The London Gazette (Supplement). 12 February 1965. p. 1675.
- ^ a b "Army Commands" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 July 2015.
- ^ Iraq war inquiry key witnesses: Lieutenant General Sir Anthony Pigott and Major General David Wilson, The Guardian
- ^ Sir Anthony Pigott Archived 13 February 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Intellectual Property Office
- ^ "'Defining moment' as US revealed Iraq plans". BBC News. BBC. 4 December 2009. Retrieved 28 January 2010.
- ^ Hopkins, Nick (9 July 2016). "When Blair met Bush: how the UK went to war in Iraq". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
- ^ "Person Page". thepeerage.com.
- ^ "Person Page". thepeerage.com.