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.

Quick Facts Sir Anthony Pigott, Born ...

Sir Anthony Pigott
Born	(1944-12-23)23 December 1944 Rawalpindi, India
Died	19 March 2020(2020-03-19) (aged 75)
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1965–2003
Rank	Lieutenant General
Commands held	Staff College, Camberley
Battles/wars	Iraq War
Awards	Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath Commander of the Order of the British Empire

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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]

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]

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]

In 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]