Anthony Pigott
British Army general (1944–2020)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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 |
| Died | 19 March 2020 (aged 75) |
| Allegiance |  United Kingdom |
| Branch |  British Army |
| Service years | 1965–2003 |
| Rank | Lieutenant General |
| Commands | Staff College, Camberley |
| Conflicts | Iraq War |
| Awards | Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath Commander of the Order of the British Empire |
Early life
Pigott 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
Educated 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
After 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]