Brigadier Alexander Frederick Birtwistle CBE (born 1948) is a retired British Army

British Army

The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

 officer who is most well known for his role in the 2001 United Kingdom foot-and-mouth outbreak.

Alex Birtwistle was born in Accrington

Accrington

Accrington is a town in Lancashire, within the borough of Hyndburn. It lies about east of Blackburn, west of Burnley, north of Manchester city centre and is situated on the mostly culverted River Hyndburn...

 and attended the Lancaster Royal Grammar School

Lancaster Royal Grammar School

Lancaster Royal Grammar School is a voluntary aided, selective grammar school for boys in Lancaster, England. The school has been awarded specialist Technology College and Language College status. Old boys belong to The Old Lancastrians...

. He joined the Army as a university cadet at Cambridge University in 1967 and was commissioned into the Queen's Lancashire Regiment

Queen's Lancashire Regiment

The Queen's Lancashire Regiment was an infantry regiment of the British Army, part of the King's Division...

 following his graduation in 1970. He then saw service in Cyprus

Cyprus

Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...

, Nigeria, Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

 and Germany and as an aide-de-camp to Her Majesty the Queen. He was also Commander of the 1st Battalion Queen's Lancashire Regiment and was awarded an OBE

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

 in the 1992 Birthday Honours List.

He was due to retire aged 53 on 2 April 2001 as the commander of the 42 (North West) Brigade based at Fulwood Barracks

Fulwood, Lancashire

Fulwood is an unparished area of the City of Preston, Lancashire, England, about north of the city centre. It had a population of 33,171 in 2001.- Economy and society :Fulwood remains a distinctive division of Preston...

, Preston

City of Preston, Lancashire

The City of Preston is a city and non-metropolitan district in Lancashire, England. It is located on the north bank of the River Ribble, and was granted city status in 2002, becoming England's 50th city in the 50th year of Queen Elizabeth II's reign...

 when he was asked to oversee the livestock mass burial site at a disused airfield near Great Orton

Great Orton

Great Orton is a village in the parish of Orton, in the City of Carlisle District, in the English county of Cumbria.- Location :It is located about five miles away from the small city of Carlisle.- Nearby settlements :...

, Cumbria. He supervised the disposal of thousands of sheep which were culled on site or brought there from Carlisle abattoir. He said at the time:

The Army is here to set up systems to deal with the problem. I hope this is going to work, because if it doesn't the consequences for this area are terrible.

In January 2002 he was awarded the CBE in the New Years Honours List for his role in the crisis.

On 6 February 2011 he appeared on television in an edition of the BBC 1 programme Countryfile

Countryfile

Countryfile is a British magazine-style television programme produced by BBC Birmingham, first aired on 24th July 1988, which reports on rural and environmental issues within the United Kingdom. For its first 20 years it was fronted by broadcaster John Craven, until he stepped back from the role of...

. He contributed his recollections of the crisis and was seen with John Craven and retired farmer William Littleat, planting an oak tree to mark the tenth anniversary of the crisis at the Watchtree Nature Reservehttp://www.watchtree.co.uk/ that has been created on the Great Orton airfield site.