| Honorific-Prefix: | Sir |
| Ambrose Hardinge Giffard | |
| Order: | 4th |
| Office: | Chief Justice of Ceylon |
| Term Start: | 8 April 1819 |
| Term End: | 2 March 1827 |
| Predecessor: | Alexander Johnston |
| Successor: | Richard Ottley |
| Order1: | 5th |
| Office1: | Advocate Fiscal of Ceylon |
| Term Start1: | 26 February 1811 |
| Term End1: | 1821 |
| Predecessor1: | William Coke |
| Successor1: | Henry Mathews |
| Birth Date: | 1771 |
| Birth Place: | Dublin, Ireland |
| Death Date: | 20 April 1827 |
| Alma Mater: | Trinity College Dublin |
Sir Ambrose Hardinge Giffard (1771–1827) was chief justice of British Ceylon.
Giffard was born in Dublin in 1771, the eldest son of John Giffard (1745–1819), high sheriff of Dublin in 1794, accountant-general of customs in Dublin, and a prominent loyalist. His mother was Sarah, daughter of William Norton, esq., of Ballynaclash, County Wexford. Giffard's grandfather was John Giffard of Torrington, Devon, who gave crucial evidence in the famous Annesley trial of 1743, evidence that turned the scales dramatically in favour of the claimant, James Annesley. Ambrose Hardinge was an attorney engaged in the case by James Annesley's patron Daniel Mackercher. These two names, Mackercher and Hardinge, recurred in the career of John's son, John, and their kindness to the son sprang from the great esteem in which they held his father - esteem that was reciprocated by John junior when he christened his eldest son Ambrose Hardinge Giffard.
After studying for the law he was called to the bar of the Inner Temple, and was appointed chief justice of Ceylon in April 1819. Giffard's health failed, and he was granted leave of absence, but he died on 30 April 1827, while on the homeward voyage, in, East Indiaman. Before his death a knighthood was conferred upon Giffard, but the title was never gazetted.
Giffard's leisure was devoted to literature, and a selection of poems was published at Ceylon about 1822. Some are reproduced in the Traditions and Recollections of Richard Polwhele.
He married in 1808 Harriet, daughter of Lovell Pennell, esq., of Lyme Regis, and left five sons and five daughters. Admiral Sir George Giffard (1815–1888) was his third son.[1]