Harry Rigby (footballer)


Claude Henry Rigby was a pharmacist, and a former Australian rules footballer who played with Carlton and Melbourne in the Victorian Football League, and with Richmond Football Club in the VFA.

Family

The son of Dr. George Owen Rigby, and Frances Maria Rigby, née English, Claude Henry Rigby was born at Kyneton, Victoria on 9 January 1878. He married Isabella Ellen Megson in 1908.

Football

He was a "fleet-footed, lightly framed wingman".

Carlton (VFL)

Recruited from Kyneton, he played 29 games for Carlton Football Club over the three seasons, 1900 to 1902.
In 1900 he played for a VFL intra-state team, against a combined Ballarat Association team.
He played his last game for Carlton against Fitzroy on 7 June 1902 ; and, a week later, he turned out for Kyneton Collegians in the Kyneton District Football Association.

Collingwood Juniors Football Club (VJFA)

In 1904 he was granted a clearance from both the Kyneton Football Club and Carlton to Collingwood Juniors Football Club in the Victorian Junior Football Association.

Richmond (VFA)

Granted a clearance from Carlton in 1905, he played for the Richmond Football Club in 1905 and 1906; and, playing on the wing, was a member of the 1905 Richmond premiership team.

Melbourne (VFL)

He played 27 games for the Melbourne Football Club in two seasons, 1907 and 1908.

Death

A qualified pharmacist, and although in poor health, Rigby died unexpectedly — " the result of a severe attack of ptomaine poisoning" — at his U.F.S. dispensary in Queens Parade, Clifton Hill, Victoria, on 7 December 1924.