Armitage Rigby
- Born 1864 Altrincham
- 1890 Edith Mary Leece, elder daughter of Paul Henry Leece at St Matthews Church. West Kensington. London
- Died 31 August 1910 at Ballamona
- Funeral Friday, 2 September 1910 the interment taking place at Braddan Cemetery.
Armitage Rigby was born at Altrincham, Cheshire, in 1864, the son of John and Sarah Rigby and was related to several families of importance in the manufacturing districts of Lancashire and Cheshire. His father was one of the founders of the firm of Armitage and Rigby, cotton manufacturers Ancoats, Manchester and Warrington and his cousin was Professor Armitage, Principal of a famous training institution for students for the Congregational ministry. Other relatives carried on extensive businesses as cotton manufacturers in Manchester. Pendleton, and Chorley.
On leaving school, he was articled to James Medland Taylor architect, while attending construction classes at Manchester Technical School. On completing his articles, he visited New York for two weeks to study “local methods of construction.” He spent another year as assistant with Medland Taylor before spending eight weeks touring Germany, Holland and Belgium. On his return to England he worked for a year in the London office of Milne and Hall.( Joseph Hall had been educated at King William's College and was articled to Medland Taylor a year before Rigby).
Between 1887 and 1889, Rigby worked as drawing office manager for his cousin, George Faulkner Armitage who had a well-established architectural practice in Altrincham. When Rigby applied for membership of the RIBA in 1905, he stated that he was obliged to give up practice in 1889 due to ill-health. However, he had moved to the Isle of Man during 1888 and was farming at Annacur, The Cooil. By January 1889 he was on the committee of the Manx Agricultural Society. He produced an elaborate deed plan of Ballapaddag Farm in 1890, the same year as he produced a report for Deemster Drinkwater on ways of improving sanitary arrangements and ventilation in Douglas Court House. In December 1890 he purchased the 116-acre Ballamona Farm, Braddan, from his future mother-in-law, Mary Leece and her son Rev Charles Leece of Port St Mary. Mrs Leece had retired to West Kensington, London, following the death of her husband Paul Henry Reece in 1885 and it was there that, in January 1891, he married her daughter, Edith Mary. The ceremony was performed by the Rev T W Dury who in 1907, became Bishop of Sodor and Man.Returning to Ballamona, Armitage Rigby undertook several experiments in methods of improved farming. He also became involved with Oakhill Chapel and was a Licensed Reader at Braddan Church. He became vice-president of Braddan Football Club and in 1908 was elected MHK for North Douglas.
After a gap of seven years he commenced architectural practice on the Isle of Man when, in December 1895, Woolfs Brewery held an architectural competition for a new public house/hotel on North Quay, Douglas. Rigby entered - and won. Suddenly he was in great demand, designing hotel alterations, printing works, places of entertainment, holiday camps, houses, (often confused with those of Baillie Scott, who was also working on the island at this time), banks, warehouses, building estates, a mansion, a large stable block, church alterations, church hall and the cross shelters at Maughold and Kirk Michael. Under the patronage of Lieutenant Governor, Lord Raglan, he restored Castle Rushen by the removal of Victorian additions and even recycled stone from the castle in alterations at Great Meadow. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1905, and became head of the firm of Rigby and Heslop, practising in Douglas and Port St. Mary.
He was also a Senior Lieutenant in the Isle of Man Volunteers and in August 1910, while at camp in St John's, he suffered an abscess of the jaw. This resulted in blood poisoning from which he died on 31 August 1910, aged 46.
Reference Peter Kelly: Isle of Man Examiner 15 November 2016 page 9-10
Obituary Manx Quarterly No 9 1910
