George Bettesworth Piggott
Sir George Bettesworth Piggott | |
|---|---|
| Chief Justice of Zanzibar | |
| In office August 1901 – 1904 | |
| Monarch | Edward VII |
| Preceded by | Walter Borthwick Cracknall |
| Succeeded by | Lindsey Smith |
| Assistant Judge for the Sublime Ottoman Porte | |
| In office 1904–1911 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 30 April 1867 |
| Died | 14 March 1952 (aged 84) Monte Carlo, Monaco |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Municipal Reform Party |
| Education | Middle Temple |
| Occupation | Judge |
Sir George Bettesworth Piggott KBE (30 April 1867 – 14 March 1952)[1] was a British judge who served in various positions under the British Empire.
Early life[edit]
Piggott was the son of Fraser Piggott, a justice of the peace.[2] His family had occupied Fitzhall in West Sussex since the 1400s.[3]
He was educated at the Westminster School.[1]
Law career[edit]
Piggott trained as a judge at the Middle Temple in June 1888,[4] and practiced law in London and the South-East.[1] Following this, he served as a judicial officer in the British Central Africa Protectorate in 1896.[1][5]: 159
From June 1900, he served as Acting Assistant Judge in Zanzibar.[6] In August 1901, he was appointed Chief Justice of Zanzibar.[7] While there, he helped implement "a deeply-entrenched legal bureaucracy" and the implementation of British imperial law.[5]: 167
In 1904, he became Assistant Judge for the Sublime Ottoman Porte in Constantinople.[1][5]: 167 He retired from the position in 1911 and returned to Africa, sitting in the East African Court of Appeal and as a judge for the Sultanate of Zanzibar.[1]
Political career[edit]
In 1913, he unsuccessfully contested Battersea in the London County Council election (LCC) as a member of the Municipal Reform Party. However, he sat on the LCC from 1917 to 1919 for Mile End, and then for Clapham until 1922.[1] At the time of his retirement from the LCC, he was chairman of the Public Control Committee.[8][9]
Personal life[edit]
On 12 July 1904, Piggott married Amy Spiller, a granddaughter of ironmaster Robert Thompson Crawshay.[2] She died on 14 April 1909 in Helwan, Egypt.[10]
In 1915, he married Nadine Beauchamp, daughter of Reginald William Proctor-Beauchamp.[11] In 1927, he married Winifred Lathbury.[12]
Throughout the build-up and length of World War II, Piggott and his third wife travelled around Canada and the United States: he had stated that "in [his] opinion" there would be no war.[13] During this time, they enjoyed the company of various socialites, entertaining guests at hotels at Palm Beach, Florida,[14][15] and holidaying in Alberta's Rockies.[16] They attended parties with Archduke Franz Josef of Austria and his wife.[17]
He died on 14 March 1952 in Monte Carlo.[1]
Honours[edit]
- Commander of the British Empire (CBE) – 1918[18]
- Knight of the British Empire (KBE) – 1919[1]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Obituary". The Times. 18 March 1952. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
- ^ a b "Marriages". The Times. 14 July 1904. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
- ^ "Silk and Stuff". The Pall Mall Gazette. 13 August 1896. p. 1. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
- ^ "Pall Mall Gazette Office". The Pall Mall Gazette. 29 June 1900. p. 8. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
- ^ a b c Bishara, Fahad Ahmad (2017). A Sea of Debt: Law and Economic Life in the Western Indian Ocean, 1780–1950. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-32637-7. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
- ^ "Pall Mall Gazette Office". The Pall Mall Gazette. 28 June 1900. p. 5. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
- ^ "Foreign Office, August 14, 1901". The London Gazette. 6 September 1901. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
- ^ "Sir G. B. Piggott Retiring from L.C.C." The Times. 4 February 1922. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
- ^ "Traps Set for Tricksters". The Victoria Daily Times. 21 April 1922. p. 15. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
- ^ "Deaths". The Times. 26 April 1909. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
- ^ "Forthcoming Marriages". The Times. 30 August 1915. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
- ^ "Forthcoming Marriages". The Times. 26 November 1927. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
- ^ "Europeans Come to Victoria to Avoid War Conditions". The Province. 29 July 1939. p. 11. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
- ^ "Palm Beach Notes". The Palm Beach Post. 2 February 1941. p. 12. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
- ^ "Night and Day - Socialites Still Whirling". The Miami Herald. 30 March 1941. p. 58. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
- ^ "Jurist Impressed with Tidiness of Ottawa Citizens". The Ottawa Citizen. 19 June 1939. p. 3. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
- ^ "Palm Beach Notes". The Palm Beach Post. 28 January 1942. p. 7. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
- ^ "Third Supplement to The London Gazette". The London Gazette. 4 January 1918. Retrieved 18 July 2020.