Abadan, Iran
Rigden was employed by The Anglo-Persian Oil Company Limited in Abadan, Iran, which eventually became British Petroleum. He managed the Abadan oil refinery during the 1930s and the Second World War, a period when its production was of vital strategic interest to the British government, and received the Order of the British Empire in 1945 for his service. Rigden was a fellow of the Royal Institute of Chemistry.