page_title: Francis Stewart Briggs
section_title: Middlesex
hierarchical_section_title: Francis Stewart Briggs / World War I / Royal Air Force / Middlesex
caption_attribution_description: English: Lieutenant Francis Stewart Briggs, RAF, at Hounslow in 1919 while serving with the Demonstration Squadron
context_page_description: Francis Stewart Briggs 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" 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.
context_section_description: On 14 March Briggs wrote that he received instructions to report to the Demonstration Squadron at Hounslow. The squadron had just been formed "for what precise reason I don't think anybody quite knows". It was equipped with all sorts of machines imaginable. There was little organised flying. "If a couple of us feel like going up, say one in a Sopwith Snipe and the other in a Fokker D7, we just order the machines out and after taking to the air, scrap around the sky until fed up. We then land and adjourn for another gin and two."
  On 3 April Briggs wrote "I was instructed to proceed to Hendon last Thursday afternoon in an Avro to give Mr. Winston Churchill a flying lesson. I duly arrived on time at that point and so did Winston Churchill. He took two looks at me, and one at a cloud overhead that started to sprinkle gentle spots of rain, then turned on his heel, re-entered his car, and drove off. I gather that he considered the weather unsuitable or that he didn't like my face."
  Three weeks later, on 18 April, Briggs had one of the greatest thrills he had ever had. Major Barker V.C., who visited the squadron a couple of times, took Briggs on in mock combat. Though suffering the disability of a wound in one arm, he won Briggs' respect as a great pilot. Briggs got in a position to put in a very short burst, but believed this was because Barker let him.
caption: Lieutenant Francis Stewart Briggs, RAF, at Hounslow in 1919 while serving with the Demonstration Squadron
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