The Lord Mayor of Westminster is to be become a Papal Knight – the highest single honour that can be bestowed on a lay Catholic by the Vatican.
Cllr Robert Rigby will become a Knight of St Gregory, an honour first established in 1831 and given to Catholic men and women for their service to the Church, or in public life.
For the Ampleforth-educated Lord Mayor of Westminster, the honour recognises a life in which he has talked publicly about his faith and supported the Church as a politician and then as the first citizen of Westminster. Cllr Rigby was elected to Westminster City Council in 2010 and held several senior roles at the authority, including chair of the planning committee – the busiest one in the UK.
A former chair of the Catholic Union, Cllr Rigby was elected Lord Mayor in May 2024 and spoke publicly about how important his faith was to his life in a series of interviews for Catholic media (see below)
One of the two Mayoral charities supported by the Lord Mayor is the Cardinal Hume Centre, which looks after teens who have drifted from their families or arrived in the country with no support. The Lord Mayor’s parlour on the 19th floor of City Hall hosted a reception for the charity attended by Cardinal Vincent Nichols.
The Lord Mayor also sought to underline the issue of homelessness when he served lunch to homeless people at the Central London Catholic Churches Homeless lunch service run from Farm Street Church.
Volunteers led by Father Dominic Robinson, parish priest of Mount Street Jesuit Centre at Farm Street, refer to the homeless diners as guests and serve them sitting at tables – making the point that those sleeping rough are deserving of dignity no matter why they have ended up on the street.
Aged 63, Cllr Rigby has lived in St John’s Wood for more than 35 years and spent his working life in sales and marketing within the travel industry, including 20 years with Japan Airlines during which time he met his wife Emiko – the first Japanese Lord Mayoress of Westminster. The Lord Mayor’s chaplain is Father Christopher Colven, past Rector of St James’s Church, Spanish Place, in Marylebone, and currently Catholic Chaplain to the Houses of Parliament. St James has a personal connection for the Lord Mayor who married Emiko there and whose parents married there in the 1950s.
The Lord Mayor said: “I am very deeply honoured to receive this award. The Benedictine rule of listening and humility has been twin pillars of my life – though they are not often characteristics you come across in politics!
“As Lord Mayor you are the first citizen for 210,000 people from a whole range of backgrounds, cultures, and faith. For me it was important to demonstrate how my own faith guides what I do, and why I think it is so important to be able to talk about my Catholic faith in public life.
“As Lord Mayor it has been my privilege to meet some remarkable Catholics who demonstrate their faith in action in a range of ways. I hope to keep doing the same, and this award really is a crowing accolade for me as a public and private person.”
The Lord Mayor is expected to be presented with the Papal honour at a ceremony next year.
