Major-General F J C Piggott CB CBE DSO

Commanded 1^st Bn The Queen's Royal Regiment from November 1952 to November 1954.

Francis James Claude Piggott was born in Tokyo on 11^th October 1910 and educated at Cheltenham and the RMC Sandhurst. He was commissioned in The Queen's Royal Regiment in January 1931 and was posted to the 2^nd Battalion with which he served for four years. He then spent three years in Japan and on return to England was appointed adjutant of The Depot in 1938 and on the outbreak of war in September 1939 became adjutant of the I T C at Guildford. Early in 1940 he was appointed adjutant of the 2/7^th Battalion and served in France in 1940. He then attended the Staff College, Camberley. In January 1941 he was appointed GSO III at the War Office and this was followed by other staff appointments and in 1943 he was appointed GSO I (Ops) with 'The Chindits'. In the campaign in Burma from 1944 to 1946 he served with 9^th Bn The York and Lancaster Regiment first as second-in-command and then as commander in the Arakan and was awarded the DSO for his fine leadership of the Battalion. At the conclusion of hostilities he went to Japan as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force. After attending the Joint Services Staff College in 1947 he held staff appointments as GSO I (Intelligence) in Japan, GSO I (Ops) GHQ Middle East Land Forces, GSO I (SD) War Office and GSO I (Plans) HQ British Troops Egypt. For these services he was made brevet Lieutenant Colonel and an OBE. In November 1952 he commanded 1^st Bn The Queen's Royal Regiment in Germany and Malaya until November 1964 when he returned to the Staff. In September 1956 he was appointed to command 161^st Infantry Brigade (TA) and in 1958 became DDMI at the War Office. His next appointment was as Assistant Chief of Staff (Intelligence) SHAPE. In 1961 he was made a CBE and in 1963 a CB. He was Colonel of The Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment from 14^th October 1964 to 31^st December 1966 and Deputy Colonel of The Queen's Regiment (Queen's Surreys) from 1^st January 1967 to 31^st March 1969.

He retired from the Army on 10^th December 1964. and died July 21^st 1996
See the Journal of The Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment Vol.2 No.2 November 1964 page 67. See also J M A Tamplin’s The Lambeth and Southwark Volunteers page 340

« Previous Back to list Next »