Edward Rigby

Edward Coke MC (5 February 1879 – 5 April 1951), known professionally as Edward Rigby, was a British character actor. Early life Rigby was born at Ashford, Kent, England, the second son of Dr William Harriott Coke and his wife, Mary Elizabeth. He was educated at Haileybury, and Wye Agricultural College. Under his real name, Edward Coke (Rigby was his mother's maiden name), he served in the Artists' Rifles and the Royal Field Artillery in World War I and was awarded the Military Cross, cited on 17 September 1917 "for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty as artillery liaison officer. At a time when all communication with his artillery group was severed, he made repeated attempts to restore the connection, and personally crossed a river under heavy fire in his efforts to mend the cable and to lay fresh ones. He showed the greatest gallantry and disregard of danger throughout the operation, and only desisted from his efforts on receiving the direct order from his headquarters to do so." In 1912, Rigby married Phyllis Muriel Mary Austin, a novelist (1888–1979). Their son, Cyril Edward Rigby Coke, a television director, married Muriel Young (1923–2001), an ITV announcer and TV presenter. Stage and screen career