Edward Rigby (obstetrician)

Edward Rigby (1804–1860) was an English obstetrician and medical writer, the first President of the Obstetrical Society of London.

The son of the physician Edward Rigby (1747–1821), he was born with a twin-sister on 1 August 1804. Educated at Norwich grammar school under Edward Valpy, he was a schoolfellow of Sir James Brooke and Sir Archdale Wilson. In 1821 he attended Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, and next year matriculated at Edinburgh University. He graduated M.D. 1 August 1825, on his twenty-first birthday which was the earliest age then possible.

After graduation Rigby spent some time in Dublin, and in 1826 went to Berlin University to study midwifery. From Berlin he moved on to Heidelberg University and Franz Naegele. In 1830 he became a house pupil at the General Lying-In Hospital, Lambeth in South London, where he went on to hold the appointments of junior and senior physician.

In 1831 Rigby was admitted a licentiate of the London College of Physicians, and in 1843 became a fellow. In 1831 he began to lecture on midwifery at St. Thomas's Hospital, and from 1838 to 1848 he lectured on the same subject at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. He was examiner in midwifery in London University from 1841 to 1860.