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From 1965 to 1975 he also served with thr Army Security Vetting Unit.Francis James Claude Piggott, soldier: born Tokyo 11 October 1910; DSO 1945; Assistant Chief of Staff (Intelligence) SHAPE 1961-64; CBE 1961; CB 1963; married 1940 Joan Cottam (one son, one daughter); died 21 July 1996.. Armhouse Lee Ltd v Chappell and another; Court of Appeal (Lord Justice Simon Brown, Lord Justice Aldous, Lord Justice Schiemann) 23 July 1996

The provision of telephone sex conversations for reward did not constitute prostitution, and advertisements for such services were not so immoral that the court should, as a matter of public policy, decline to enforce the contracts under which they had been placed.
The Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal by the defendants, Anthony Chappell and ST Grid Ltd, against the judgment of Roger Titheridge QC, sitting as a deputy High Court judge on 19 September 1994, awarding the plaintiff, Armhouse Lee Ltd (in liquidation) over pounds 700,000 in outstanding fees for advertising services.The defendants rented and operated telephone sex lines at premium rates. He then took command of the 1st Battalion of the Queen’s Royal Regiment in Iserlohn, Germany before taking them to Malaya in 1954 where he remained until 1956 when he was appointed Commander of 161 Infantry Brigade TA.Two years later he was appointed Deputy Director of Military Intelligence until 1961 when, promoted to Major General, he became Assistant Chief of Staff (Intelligence) under the American General Laurie Norstadt at SHAPE (Supreme Headquarters, Allied Powers, Europe) outside Paris. Anticipating this, he brought copies of the London Illustrated News with him which were well received.After a spell at the Joint Services Staff College in 1947 he was sent to the headquarters of the British troops in Egypt where he was General Staff Officer (Intelligence) at General George Erskine’s headquarters during disturbances in the Canal Zone. Here he renewed his relationship with the Tokagawas and Prince Chichita, for part of his brief was to ensure the well-being of the Japanese Royal Family.

He was short and ginger-haired and could be volatile – but he was always very fair.”After the war Piggott returned to Japan with the British and Commonwealth Forces who were under the command of General MacArthur. His steady leadership of his battalion resulted in the award of a DSO. As one of his Company Commanders recalled: “He was only with us about a year, but whatever Francis Piggott said, you did. During this period Piggott was able to use his knowledge of the Japanese and their language in his interrogation of prisoners. On Wingate’s death in a plane crash Piggott was posted to the 9th Battalion The Yorks and Lancashire Regiment, then based in Burma, which he was soon to command.At the time (a late stage in the Burma campaign), the regiment, part of 25th Indian Division, was actively engaging the Japanese who were tenaciously fighting a retreat along the Arakan coast.

Wingate was responsible for organising the Chindits – specially trained jungle fighters. This was not always a comfortable relationship, however – indeed, Wingate once pushed him out of an aircraft as it was moving along the runway. He invited her out to tea and not long afterwards they were married.In 1943, the time Piggott had spent in Japan pre-war began to be utilised when he was appointed GSO2 to General Orde Wingate in Burma. However, he was determined not to let having only one eye interfere with his military career.On his return to England he became Adjutant of the Queen’s Royal Regiment which soon after the outbreak of the Second World War was sent into action in France as part of the British Expeditionary Force. On his return, after being evacuatied from Dunkirk, he joined the General Staff.One hot summer’s day in 1940 he returned to his old school at Cheltenham for their sports day There he met Joan Cottam, the sister of a new boy. He was given absolute freedom of movement, for the Japanese with their fear of China and Russia had no thoughts of war with the British.In the summer of 1937 Piggott lost the sight of his left eye in an accident, which made the study of Japanese characters difficult He was therefore shipped back to England.

As his studies progressed he slowly began to make inroads into Japanese society and among his friends were Yoshitomo Tokugawa, who was from the family of the last shogun of Japan (the commander-in-chief and the real ruler of feudal Japan), and his wife Masako, whose elder sister was married to Prince Chichibu, the empress’s elder brother.Piggott was also attached to the 2nd Regiment of the Imperial Footguards, which not only increased his linguistic skills but gave him a unique insight into the Japanese military mind. He was soon offered the opportunity of a nine-month course at the School of Oriental Studies in London. He was then sent to Japan on a three-year language course.In Japan, Piggott found a small house, procured two servants and two language teachers. The young Piggott was sent to prep school in Weymouth and then on to his father’s old school, Cheltenham College. From there he gained a prize cadetship to Sandhurst.
In 1933 he was commissioned into the senior English Infantry Regiment of the Line, the Queen’s Royal Regiment (West Surrey). At the age of two, with his father’s term of duty completed and after a lengthy trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway, he arrived with his family in Camberley, Surrey, where his father was to attend Staff College.

An individual’s place of birth often dictates the course of their future life Francis Piggott was born in Tokyo in 1910. His father, a young captain at the time, later a major-general, was there as a language officer; his grandfather, Sir Francis Piggott, had also served as a legal adviser to the Japanese government. The young Francis’s career in the army was for many years to revolve around Japan – first as a linguist, attached to the Imperial Footguards, then fighting the Japanese in the Second World War, and afterwards briefly with the Royal household. Indeed, it was impossible to find a topic on which he couldn’t add to or correct your knowledge.His meticulous approach to his scientific work was reflected in his domestic life.