stipendiary magistrate, was born on 17 December 1826 at Kenchester, Hereford, the son of John and Marian Griffiths. He was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1850 and appointed senior magistrate in the Falkland Islands in 1863. When Governor ROBINSON requested leave in November 1867, he asserted that Griffiths could administer the government in his place. He had great confidence in him as the senior magistrate and senior member of LegCo who was 'intelligent and entirely trustworthy. He is constitutionally timid and somewhat afraid of responsibility. But this would make him all the more cautious'. In the Colonial Office, officials noted that Governor MACKENZIE had not been so impressed by Griffiths: 'but it is right to say that Captain Mackenzie was not a man of strong judgement and that he was querulous'.

Griffiths took a weak line during the Coquimbana incident, accepting claims from merchants in Stanley that the vessel was a wreck. Governor Robinson overturned his decision on appeal.

[The Coquimbana was wrecked on 31 May 1867 in Falkland Sound. It was a British 484 ton wooden barque of Swansea. It had a cargo of copper and barley from Valparaiso to Bristol under Captain Thomas Boden] 

Late in 1870, Governor D'ARCY noted that 'his mind was going, speech was so inarticulate as to render the court ridiculous'. D'Arcy believed this could have been caused by the death of his son in Russia. Griffith's wife (Kate) was not present in Stanley at the time. In 1872 Griffiths returned to England.