Career
Garrioch joined the Colonial Service in 1936 and was subsequently appointed a First Grade Clerk in 1946, when he was picked to be a judge"s secretary. He became the secretary of Justice Georges Espitalier-Noël, who was able to persuade Chief Justice Sir Francis Herchenroder that Garrioch should be encouraged to embrace a legal career. He was called to the Bar at Gray"s Inn and to the Mauritian Bar in 1952.
On his return to Mauritius, Garrioch was immediately appointed to the post of Crown Counsel, at a time in the 1950s when it was the Chief Justice who advised the Governor on the appointment of Law Officers and District Magistrates.
Garrioch moved up in the office to become Director of Public Prosecutions, which at the time was higher in the legal hierarchy than Solicitor-General. He was made a Judge of the Supreme Court in 1967.
In 1963, when the Colonial Secretary dispatched his Chief Legal Adviser, Anthony Rushford Queen's Counsel, in order to finalize the draft of what was to become the Mauritian constitution of 1964 (which was to be the basis for their Independence Constitution of 1967), Rushford asked Mauritius to provide the services of its best legislative draftsman to be his counterpart. The Mauritian authorities selected Garrioch, who spent several weeks at Le Réduit to finalize the draft before it went to Her Majesty in Council.
When Sir Raman Osman retired as Governor-General of Mauritius in 1977, Garrioch was appointed acting Governor General.
Despite the prestige attached to this post, he later returned to the Supreme Court, where he served as Chief Justice.