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 Garis and in 1922 joined "Jimmy" Larkin's "Australian Aerial Services" (AAS) company, headquartered at Hay, New South Wales. Frank Briggs married Miriam Carter 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, 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. 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. 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.