Kenelm Edward Digby

This article is about the English lawyer and civil servant. For other people with the same name, see from 1895 to 1903.

Biography

Digby was born in Wotton-under-Edge in Gloucestershire, England, the son of Hon. and Revd. Kenelm Henry Digby (1811–1891) and his wife Caroline.^[1] The Digby county family, established in Dorset, had a history of public service. The Revd. Kenelm Henry Digby was the younger brother of Jane Digby and of Edward Digby, 9th Baron Digby.

Digby went to school at Blakeney in

and believed in "the greater importance of giving substantial power to the working classes". Later in his life he was involved in working out fair and effective means of compensating workmen for industrial injuries.

In 1892 Digby was appointed County Court Judge in Derbyshire, and in 1891 he became a bencher of Lincoln's Inn and in 1904

.

Digby was created KCB in 1898, retired in September 1903 and was promoted to GCB in 1906. Over the subsequent ten years he sat as a member of numerous departmental committees of inquiry, chairing the Home Office departmental committee on workmen's compensation (1904), and acted as an arbitrator in labour disputes. In 1914 he was appointed a member of the commission to investigate alleged German war atrocities in Belgium.

Digby married Caroline (1848–1926) on 30 August 1870, the second daughter of liberal politician

Digby died on 21 April 1916 at Studland in Dorset.

References