Background
Diggles was born in Liverpool, Lancashire and married Eliza Bradley in 1839, with whom he had two daughters and a son.
Diggles was born in Liverpool, Lancashire and married Eliza Bradley in 1839, with whom he had two daughters and a son.
In 1853 he migrated with his family to Australia, living for a year in Sydney before settling in Brisbane, Queensland, where he taught music and drawing as well as tuning and repairing musical instruments. In 1877 he was given a grand benefit concert by the musicians of the city, and called "the father of music in Brisbane". A religious man, he had joined the New Jerusalem Church in 1846 and served as its leader in Brisbane.
He was also a Freemason.
He served as the Queensland representative on the 1871/72 solar eclipse expedition to Cape Sidmouth, Far North Queensland, and reported on the birds, insects and scenery there to the Philosophical Society. Diggles is best known for his authorship of a major ornithological work which was never completely published because of financial problems.
The moth genus of Digglesia, the brushed trapdoor spider Ozicrypta digglesi, and the sea snail Zafra digglesi are named after him. Diggles" health deteriorated from about 1875, a contributing factor being worries about his publishing problems.