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
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
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
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
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
References