Lieutenant General Anthony Leonard Birks, CB, OBE (30 December 1941 – 21 January 2002) was a senior officer in the New Zealand Army.
[1][2] In 1959 Birks entered the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst in the United Kingdom, and on completion of his studies two years later was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the New Zealand Army.
[4] From 1985 to 1990, he was commander of the 3rd Task Force,[1] and during this time he was promoted to Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1987 Queen's Birthday Honours.
[6] In 1995, he was promoted to lieutenant general and became Chief of the Defence Force, and worked towards updating the equipment of all three branches of the military.
He died of a heart attack on 21 January 2002 in Whakatāne and was given a full military burial with 400 attendees and an honour guard at Waiouru.