Tributes paid to former soldier (From Northwich Guardian)

Major General Archie Birtwistle was school’s former head boy

9:43am Thursday 16th April 2009 in News

A FORMER head boy of a Northwich school has died aged 81 after a life of distinction.

Major General Archie Birtwistle was born in Northwich, in 1927, and was a pupil of Victoria Road Primary School and Sir John Deane’s Grammar School.

While at Sir John Deane’s, he became Wilbraham house captain, captain of the first XV rugby team and head boy.

His eulogy, read at his funeral, stated: “Soldier, sportsman, scholar and family man – Archie, as well all knew him, was a man who lived life to the full and enlivened the lives of everyone with whom he came in contact.”

Major General Birtwistle joined the Army as an engineering cadet in 1947, was commissioned into the Royal Signals, at Catterick, in September 1949, and was posted to Korea in 1951 as the Adjutant of the 1st Commonwealth Division Signal Regiment., where he was mentioned in dispatches.

In 1956, he married Sylvia and also started studying at St John’s College Cambridge, where he gained an honours degree in mechanical sciences.

The father-of-three and grandfather-of-seven soon returned to army life after he graduated in 1959 and was put in charge of the first unit to bring into service the revolutionary communications system known as BRUIN.

He was promoted numerous times during his career, being given command of 7 Signal Regiment in Germany, given responsibility for developing a new battlefield computer system in the Ministry of Defence, being made Deputy Commandant of the Royal Military College of Science at Shrivenham and eventually being made Major General in 1979.

He was appointed Chief Signals Officer in the British Army of the Rhine, then Signal Officer in Chief, and retired from active service in 1983.

On his retirement, he became a Colonel Commandant of the Corps and Honorary Colonel of the Durham Army Cadet Force. He was Master of Signals from 1990 to 1997.

He was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1976 and Commander of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 1982.

In his retirement he lived with Sylvia in the North Yorkshire village of Romanby, where he played an active role in the community.