Francis Stewart Briggs (18 September 1897 – 21 July 1966) was a pioneering Australian aviator. Frank Briggs learnt to fly with the Royal Flying Corps in the First World War. During the Peace Conference in 1919 he flew delegates between London and Paris and was the personal pilot of Australia's Prime Minister, Billy Hughes. On return to Australia, Briggs flew with C.J. De GarisMitchell, Ernest Lund, "The first aeroplane to land in Western Australia from the Eastern States on Belmont Racecourse at 1 pm, 2 December 1920", State Library of Western Australia,. Retrieved 16 June 2014. and in 1922 joined "Jimmy" Larkin's "Australian Aerial Services" (AAS) company, headquartered at Hay, New South Wales. Frank Briggs married Miriam CarterBriggs, Francis Stewart, "Photograph of Miriam Carter (c. 1924)", Wikimedia Commons, 18 June 2014. Retrieved 18 June 2014. in Hay on 3 August 1926. Later he joined the Shell oil company, taking charge of a new aviation department in Perth.
Early years Francis Stewart Briggs was born in Fort William, India, on 18 September 1897. His parents (both widowed) had married in at St Andrew's Church in Calcutta on 30 April 1895. His father, George Howard Briggs,Unknown, "Photograph of George Howard Briggs", Wikimedia Commons, 20 June 2014. Retrieved 20 June 2014. who worked as a (non-musical) Conductor with the British Indian Army in the Bengal Ordnance Department, died in Allahabad of fever on 5 June 1897, three months before Francis was born. After service as governess to the household of the Raja of Dhar (Raja Udaji Rao Puar), Eliza Briggs (née Eldridge) and her son moved in 1909 to Saint Helier, Jersey, in the Channel Islands then in 1912 to Adelaide. Before the war, Briggs was a telegraph operator at the Adelaide GPO.
(George Howard Briggs' first wife was Elizabeth Eleanor Sophia Ross, born 5 February 1857 in Umballa, India. They married on 13 September 1883 in Ferozepore, India. She died in Rawalpindi on 26 December 1888. Eliza Eldridge's first husband was Francis O'Hare, an army tailor.Office of Superintendent and Agent for Army Clothing, "Francis O’Hare Master Tailor Certificate", Wikimedia Commons, 25 June 2014. Retrieved 25 June 2014. They married on 13 May 1883 in Battersea. Francis O'Hare died on 21 March 1892 at Fort William, India.)
World War I
First Australian Imperial Force
Briggs enlisted on 23 August 1915 as a signaller with the Australian 3rd Light Horse Regiment of the 1st Light Horse Brigade and embarked from Adelaide on 11 January 1916.F.S. Briggs, "Attestation Paper of Persons Enlisted for Service Abroad" , National Archives of Australia. Retrieved 11 June 2014.Australian Light Horse Studies Centre, "3rd Australian Light Horse Regiment, Embarkation Roll, 13th Reinforcement Borda Group", Australian Light Horse Studies Centre , 23 April 2006. Retrieved 11 June 2014.Australian War Memorial, , Australian War Memorial. Retrieved 11 June 2014. In Egypt he transferred to the 111th Howitzer Battery of the 4th Division Artillery when that division was formed after the evacuation of Gallipoli. By May 1916, he was in France (at Croix du Bac near Steenwerck) with the AIF as a Wireless Operator and Signalman.
On 2 June Briggs was attached to No.16 Squadron RFC at La Gorge aerodrome in France for six weeks. This attachment was to develop co-operation between the RFC and the artillery using air to ground wireless radio, then still in its infancy. Briggs was selected for the task because he had knowledge of the area which he had picked up during forward O.P. (observation post) duty. His first flight in a plane resulted in his first crash. On this flight he was to be observer for a young English pilot with about 18 hours solo flying experience. On take-off they flew into a hedge bordering the aerodrome and ended up hanging upside-down in their seats. Neither crew nor plane were seriously damaged; an ox was not so lucky. Briggs' job with No. 16 Squadron was to observe and range for the artillery. Before take-off in their BE2c the plane crew tested and warmed their guns. With cameras, ammunition and four Cooper bombs on board it often took twelve to fifteen minutes to reach 2,500 feet, with the plane travelling at 75 miles per hour. They conducted the shoots at 5,000 to 7,000 feet altitude and up to five miles behind the lines, depending on the type of gun and the target.
The aircraft normally carried out the shoot alone, but if it was an especially important operation then a flight of fighters were assigned to provide top cover. The fighters at this time were mostly Sopwith Pups, Bristol Scouts, DH1s, DH2s and the FE8. At this time the RFC did not have a synchronised gun. Briggs' first combat was a "no decision show". The pilot was Captain Brown (later Major Brown MC). They were conducting a shoot when attacked by an Albatros D.II scout. The Albatros had better speed, better climb and a synchronised gun. The BE2c had two guns. One was set at an angle to fire outside the propeller arc and was operated by the pilot. The observer, who sat directly behind the engine, had a gun mounted on the fuel tank which separated him from the pilot. He could fire in an arc between the wing tip and the tail plane. Then, unless he wanted to cut the pilot in half, he had to lift the gun up then drop it down on the other side. Captain Brown decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and they "scootered for home". Brown and Briggs gained three "probables" but none were confirmed. The only German aircraft types Briggs encountered at this time were the Albatros D.II, the Fokker Biplane and the Halberstadt.
No. 16 Squadron had four flights of seven aircraft, all BE2c's powered by the 90 h.p. RAF factory engine. These engines required constant replacement (Briggs reported). After six weeks, during which Briggs had learnt to love aircraft and flying, he returned to his unit. In October a circular was promulgated that sought volunteers from the AIF to be Royal Flying Corps pilots. Briggs and, as he put it, 99.99 recurring percent of the AIF, applied. On 7 November Briggs was among about 250 members of the Division invited to interviews with RFC "brass hats". The men soon realised that a good education and sporting prowess were regarded favourably, so the RFC officers must have thought that every Australian Olympic athlete and university student was in the AIF. On 13 November Briggs learnt he had been selected by the Royal Flying Corps. Two other men were selected from Briggs' division (4th Division) at this time – Charles Kingsford Smith and Edgar Johnston, all three survived the war.
Royal Flying Corps
Training
Initial training, starting November 1916, was at Denham, Buckinghamshire. This training continued at Oxford from January to March 1917. The cadets were quartered at various colleges. Briggs was at Exeter College, where his roommate was Edgar Johnston. In a lecture room on 2 February Briggs' eyes started to smart badly, and he felt very unwell. It turned out he had German measles and he spent a few days in hospital. Several other cadets joined him, including Percival Moody (who years later was an air-mail pilot for Qantas). On 10 March all the cadets succeeded in their examinations and passed out from Oxford. On 17 March Briggs was simultaneously honourably discharged from the AIF and admitted to the RFC as a second lieutenant.
On 24 March Briggs was in Thetford to start training (with No. 25 Training Squadron) on an aircraft, the Maurice Farman Shorthorn, known as a "Rumpty". His instructor was Captain Foggin. On 15 June, after twenty hours of flying solo, Briggs was amazed to receive orders to report to a training squadron (No. 52 Training Squadron) in Stirling as an instructor.
Scotland
On 30 July Briggs was introduced to his first six pupils. First in the air was a gentleman named Pitt-Pitts, believed by Briggs to be great-grandson of the famous British statesman Pitt. On 19 August Briggs crashed his Martinsyde Elephant aircraft. He and other members of the squadron had been in the habit of flying very low over the local golf course on their return, a practice the CO had banned. The procedure involved hopping across traffic on a road bordering the aerodrome, plus a wall separating the road and the aerodrome. On this occasion Briggs hurdled a car on the road, but then noticed that the car was the CO's and saw his enraged face staring out. Distracted for a split second he forgot about the wall, had to climb almost vertically, stalled and crashed on the aerodrome side of the wall. Briggs walked away without a scratch but with badly bruised feet. The CO was so relieved Briggs was OK that all he did was shake his head at him and he walked away speechless.
The squadron relocated from Stirling to Montrose, where a fighter squadron No. 80 Squadron of Sopwith Camels was being formed. On 2 October Briggs was flying a De Havilland IV bomber when he noticed a Sopwith Camel using him as a practice target. He responded in kind, engaging the Camel, flying the De H. IV as if it were a fighter. When he landed the CO of No. 80 Squadron (Major Graham, an Australian) offered Briggs a place in his squadron, an offer which delighted Briggs (who was keen to see active service).
Suffolk Briggs' hopes were soon dashed. Major Graham had started the transfer process, but Briggs learnt on 10 October that higher authority had decided he be transferred instead to the RFC Test and Experimental Station at Orfordness. Briggs recorded that Orfordness was regarded by pilots as "a very hush-hush show where high priests perform aerial magic". Briggs was at Orfordness on 14 October. The CO, Major Norman, had invented a machine-gun sight that made firing reasonably accurate for the average pilot. In the mess Briggs was introduced to two Oxford dons and a Cambridge don (one of whom, Captain Fairbairn, he later taught to fly). On the base he was delighted to discover another Australian, Lieutenant Wackett (the very resourceful Lawrence Wackett, who later invented a very efficient anti-aircraft gun sight).
The reason he was posted to Orfordness was to conduct experiments in cloud flying (later known as blind flying) and aerial navigation. He was told that bad weather in France was restricting flying operations, if more pilots could get above the cloud on dirty weather days then more bombing could be carried out inside German territory. At this stage cloud flying was an unknown art, nobody could tell Briggs much about it. He depended on the standard rev. counter, airspeed indicator, inclinometer and compass. After two days at the station Briggs was joined by four more pilots who had been assigned to research cloud flying. These were Bell and Montmorency (Canadians) and Powell and Weller (Englishmen). They were soon able to fly through ten or twelve thousand feet of cloud in reasonable formation (Briggs recorded in his diary).