Anthony Pigott

Lieutenant General Sir Anthony David Pigott, KCB, CBE (23 December 1944 – 19 March 2020 ) was a British Army officer. He also served as Independent Member of Steering Board at the Intellectual Property Office.

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.

Military career Educated at St George's College, Weybridge, and Trinity College, Cambridge, 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. From 2000 he served as Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Commitments) with responsibility for planning and executing the invasion of Afghanistan. He retired in 2003.

On 4 December 2009, Pigott gave evidence to The Iraq Inquiry. 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.

Family In 1981, he married Felicity Ann Astley-Cooper. 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.