Ivo Rigby

Ivo Charles Clayton Rigby (2 June 1911 – 19 April 1987) was a British lawyer and judge. He was Chief Justice of Hong Kong in the early 1970s.

Early life and education Rigby was born on 2 June 1911, in Yarmouth, Norfolk, England, and was a member of the Church of England. He was the only son of James Philip Clayton Rigby. He received his education at Magdalen College School in Oxford from October 1921 to June 1929, after which he began with his admission to legal studies in 1928, on 16 April 1928, and culminated in his call to the Bar on 8 June 1932.

Legal career Rigby began his legal career practising at the Bar at the Inner Temple and on the South Eastern Circuit, working in London and Norwich from June 1932 to September 1935. He then entered colonial service as Police Magistrate in Bathurst, Gambia, from October 1935 to January 1938. In 1941, he was appointed Crown Counsel and later served as President of the District Court in Palestine, sitting in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Haifa until July 1948. During this time, he served in the Palestine Volunteer Defence Force from 1941 until its disbandment in 1943. He was formally appointed Chief Justice of Hong Kong on 7 January 1970. The following year, on 25 March 1971, he sentenced 19-year-old Graham Edwards to death after a Hong Kong jury found him guilty of murdering British scientist Ronald Alan Coombe. Rigby retired to England in 1973. On 23 June 1976, the queen appointed Rigby as a Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate, with effect from 28 June 1976, by Warrant under Her Royal Sign Manual.

Rigby died on 19 April 1987 at the age of 75 in Brunei.