Brigadier retires from disease front line

Brigadier Birtwistle's team was thanked by the prime minister

The Army officer who postponed his retirement to fight the foot-and-mouth crisis in Cumbria has finally handed over command as he leaves the forces.

Brigadier Alex Birtwistle has won many plaudits for his uncompromising approach to dealing with the logistical demands of the country's first mass burial site.

He said he was sad to leave a dedicated team that has been publicly thanked by Prime Minister Tony Blair, but he felt the battle against the disease was being won in the region.

The commander of the 42 (North West) Brigade, who served in Northern Ireland and Africa during his 34-year career, had been due to retire on 2 April.

He knows what he wants and he gets what he wants, sometimes by methods that don't always go down well with everyone

Nick Utting, North Cumbria NFU

But the brigadier agreed to postpone his leaving date after senior officers urged him to oversee the Army involvement in the mass burial site, at Great Orton Airfield in Cumbria.

The operation was as challenging as any he had encountered in his service career.

He started the operation with just a team of four, "an empty car park and a mobile phone".

Brigadier Birtwistle hands over to his successor - Brigadier Mike Wharmby - a team of 300 trucks and 300 Army personnel whose initial brief to dispose of 400,000 animals has since exceeded one million carcasses.

Brigadier Wharmby OBE, a father-of-two from Hampshire, has notched up 27 years in the Army.

His postings have included the command of a 600-strong unit in Rwanda in 1994, and a brief stint in Kosovo in 1999.

The slaughter has risen from 400,000 to more than a million

Of the operation he is handing over, Brigadier Birtwistle said: "We managed to make what seemed an essentially simple task, complex and then simple again."

"It was a team effort, bringing together all those with appropriate knowledge, such as Maff and contractors and with the command and control from the Army side.

"We had to build a team and at the same time we were getting on with the job which was quite challenging."

He said the region now seemed to be over the worst but could not understand how some people were still breaking the livestock movement restrictions, risking spreading the disease to uninfected areas.

High profile role

Brigadier Birtwistle's efforts have been widely appreciated. Nick Utting, of the North Cumbria National Farmers' Union described him as "quite a character".

"He knows what he wants and he gets what he wants, sometimes by methods that don't always go down well with everyone," he said.

Army command and control was key

"Nevertheless what he has done is get things moving."

The brigadier, by his own admission, has enjoyed the media attention during his high profile role.

His television appearances have even prompted letters from a few old flames.

"They threw me over 30 years ago but have now written to me so I shall be dropping the odd card back to them, my wife permitting," he said.

He is not likely to put his feet up for a quiet retirement at his Lancashire home.

He plans to spend time with his two daughters, aged 10 and 12, whose own pet lambs were slaughtered in the cull.

"I shall definitely not be retiring in a financial sense or in the sense of domestic work," he said.

"I would like to have a varied portfolio, I've quite enjoyed the excitement and the challenge."

But he first plans to spend a week writing thank-you letter to the well wishers who have sent messages of support from around the world.