Eric Rigg

Eric Rigg (1919 - 1984)

 

Eric Rigg was born in Rochdale on 3rd May 1919, and joined the Company in 1979 following his retirement from the Standards Department of the Board of Trade, advising the Company on legal metrology matters including OIML proposals.

 

During World War II he served as a Captain in R.E.M.E. in the Far East and Germany and on demobilisation joined a family engineering business in the North West.

 

In 1953 he was accepted into the Civil Service in the Standards Department and rose rapidly to become Chief Examiner – where he was largely responsible for drafting the 1963 Weights & Measures Act.  He was in charge of approval procedures of all weighing and measuring instruments and in this capacity approved the first retail electronic digital weigher for the U.K. market on July 10th 1968, the Lion CD Electronic Weigher Mark 1.

 

Due to the step change in technology at that time, the Standards Department was inundated with new applications and was considerably understaffed.  Eric strove to keep the time scale for approval to a minimum although at one stage the backlog was well in excess of two years.  The strain of carrying this heavy load took its toll and he had a heart attack which led to his decision to take early retirement.

 

He moved to Ousden outside Newmarket where Marjorie and he converted an old country cottage.  His health improved and he took on a new lease of life with us, applying the theory of legal metrology to the very practical problems of machine design and manufacture.

 

However on 12th April 1984 Eric was at NWML on behalf of the Company when he collapsed and died.

 

Lion News 209  reported that Eric was ‘a man of very high principles, totally loyal and straightforward, he would fight vigorously for what he thought was right.  Nevertheless a modest and gentle man he had a happy and keen sense of humour and made many friends both young and old in the Company.’

 

In June 1985 at a service in Ousden village church an oak seat commissioned by his friends and colleagues was placed on the grass outside the village church and dedicated to his memory.