Wikipedia

George Bettesworth Piggott

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.

Sir
George Bettesworth Piggott
Chief Justice of Zanzibar
In office
August 1901 – 1904
MonarchEdward VII
Preceded byWalter Borthwick Cracknall
Succeeded byLindsey Smith
Assistant Judge for the Sublime Ottoman Porte
In office
1904–1911
Personal details
Born(1867-04-30)30 April 1867
Died14 March 1952(1952-03-14) (aged 84)
Monte Carlo, Monaco
NationalityBritish
Political partyMunicipal Reform Party
EducationMiddle Temple
OccupationJudge

Early life

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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

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Piggott was called to the bar 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

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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

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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

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Obituary". The Times. 18 March 1952. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
  2. ^ a b "Marriages". The Times. 14 July 1904. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
  3. ^ "Silk and Stuff". The Pall Mall Gazette. 13 August 1896. p. 1. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
  4. ^ "Pall Mall Gazette Office". The Pall Mall Gazette. 29 June 1900. p. 8. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
  5. ^ 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.
  6. ^ "Pall Mall Gazette Office". The Pall Mall Gazette. 28 June 1900. p. 5. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
  7. ^ "Foreign Office, August 14, 1901". The London Gazette. 6 September 1901. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
  8. ^ "Sir G. B. Piggott Retiring from L.C.C." The Times. 4 February 1922. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
  9. ^ "Traps Set for Tricksters". The Victoria Daily Times. 21 April 1922. p. 15. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
  10. ^ "Deaths". The Times. 26 April 1909. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
  11. ^ "Forthcoming Marriages". The Times. 30 August 1915. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
  12. ^ "Forthcoming Marriages". The Times. 26 November 1927. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  13. ^ "Europeans Come to Victoria to Avoid War Conditions". The Province. 29 July 1939. p. 11. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
  14. ^ "Palm Beach Notes". The Palm Beach Post. 2 February 1941. p. 12. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
  15. ^ "Night and Day - Socialites Still Whirling". The Miami Herald. 30 March 1941. p. 58. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
  16. ^ "Jurist Impressed with Tidiness of Ottawa Citizens". The Ottawa Citizen. 19 June 1939. p. 3. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
  17. ^ "Palm Beach Notes". The Palm Beach Post. 28 January 1942. p. 7. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
  18. ^ "Third Supplement to The London Gazette". The London Gazette. 4 January 1918. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
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