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{{Infobox military person
| honorific_prefix =
| name = Frederic Cecil Currer Briggs
| honorific_suffix =
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| birth_date = 26 November 1889
| birth_place = [[Pipestone, Minnesota|Pipestone]], [[Minnesota]]
| disappeared_date =
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| death_date = 22 November 1919
| death_place = [[Bannu]]
| death_cause = [[Peritonitis]]
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|allegiance = {{UK}}
|branch = {{flagicon|British Raj}} [[British Indian Army]]
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| unit = [[King's Regiment (Liverpool)]]
| commands =
| known_for =Witness to [[Jallianwalla Bagh Massacre]] (1919)
| battles =
{{tree list}}
*[[First World War]]
**[[Mesopotamian campaign]]
*[[Third Anglo-Afghan War]]
*[[Waziristan campaign (1919–1920)|Waziristan campaign]]
{{tree list/end}}
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| awards = [[Distinguished Service Order]] (1917)
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'''Frederic Cecil Currer Briggs''' (26 November 1889 - 22 November 1919), was a British army officer with the [[King's Regiment (Liverpool)]] who served in [[British India|India]], [[Mesopotamia]], and the [[North-West Frontier Province|North-West Frontier]]. On 13 April 1919 he accompanied [[Reginald Dyer]] to [[Jallianwalla Bagh]], [[Amritsar]], and became eyewitness to the [[Jallianwalla Bagh Massacre]].

==Early life and education==
Frederic Briggs was born on 26 November 1889, in [[Pipestone, Minnesota|Pipestone]], [[Minnesota]], to [[W. C. Briggs|William Currer Briggs]].<ref name=CWGC>{{cite web |title=Major Frederic Cecil Currer Briggs |url=https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/1436830/frederic-cecil-currer-briggs/ |website=www.cwgc.org |publisher=Commonwealth War Graves |access-date=21 September 2025}}</ref><ref name=IWM>{{cite web |title=We remember Frederic Cecil Currer Briggs|url=https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/lifestory/497474 |website=www.livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/ |access-date=21 September 2025}}</ref> He completed his early education from [[Bedford School|Bedford Grammar School]].<ref name=Cricket1908>{{cite news |title=Cricket |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000749/19080612/159/0009 |access-date=22 September 2025 |work=Bedfordshire Times and Independent |date=12 June 1908 |page=9|url-access=subscription|via=[[British Newspaper Archive]]}}</ref><ref name=Creagh1924>{{cite book |last1=Creagh |first1=Sir O'Moore |last2=Humphris |first2=Edith M. |title=The V. C. and D. S. O. |date=1924 |publisher=Standard art book Company Limited |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5Jq1yDoxGM0C&pg=PA211|page=211|language=en}}</ref> After training at the [[Royal Military College, Sandhurst|Royal Military College]], [[Sandhurst, Berkshire|Sandhurst]], he joined the [[King's Regiment (Liverpool)]].<ref name=Infantry1909>{{cite news |title=Infantry |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001394/19091106/086/0020 |access-date=22 September 2025 |work=Army and Navy Gazette |date=6 November 1909 |page=20|url-access=subscription|via=British Newspaper Archive}}</ref>

==Military career==
Briggs was commissioned as a [[second lieutenant]] on 3 November 1909.<ref name=Gaz2Nov1909>{{cite news |date=2 November 1909 |title=Infantry |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/28303/page/8015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211222052940/https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/28303/data.pdf |archive-date=22 December 2021 |access-date=23 September 2025 |work=[[The London Gazette]]|page=8015 |issue=28303}}</ref> He was subsequently posted to India, travelling aboard the ''[[HMHS Rewa]]'' in January 1910.<ref name=Naval1909>{{cite news |title=Naval and Military Intelligence |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003464/19091230/046/0003 |access-date=22 September 2025 |work=Evening Irish Times |date=30 December 1909 |page=3|url-access=subscription|via=British Newspaper Archive}}</ref> He was promoted to [[lieutenant]] later that same year.<ref>{{cite news |title=Infantry |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003187/19100725/076/0005 |access-date=22 September 2025 |work=Evening Mail |date=25 July 1910|url-access=subscription|via=British Newspaper Archive}}</ref>

During the [[First World War]], he attained the rank of [[Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)|captain]] in December 1914.<ref name="Infantry1914">{{cite news |date=18 December 1914 |title=Infantry |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/29013/supplement/10899 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241226081410/https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/29013/data.pdf |archive-date=26 December 2024 |access-date=22 September 2025 |work=Supplement to the London Gazette |page=10899 |issue=29013}}</ref> In May 1917 he was posted to [[Mesopotamia campaign|Mesopotamia]] with the [[King's Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster)]] as acting [[Major (United Kingdom)|major]] and second-in-command of a battalion.<ref>{{cite news |date=29 May 1917 |title=Infantry |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/30104/supplement/5348 |archive-url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/30104/data.pdf |archive-date=28 September 2025 |access-date=23 September 2025 |work=Supplement to the London Gazette |issue=30104}}</ref> For his service in the campaign, he was awarded the [[Distinguished Service Order]] in August 1917.<ref name=IWM/><ref>{{cite news |date=25 August 1917 |title=Awarded a Bar to the Distinguished Service Order |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/30252/supplement/8853 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250312125025/https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/30252/supplement/8853/data.pdf |archive-date=12 March 2025 |access-date=21 September 2025 |work=Supplement to the London Gazette |issue=30252}}</ref>

On 11 April 1919, Briggs accompanied [[Reginald Dyer]] to [[Amritsar]], and escorted him to [[Jallianwalla Bagh]] two days later.<ref name=Wagner.132>Wagner, p.132</ref><ref name=Collett215>Collett, p. 215</ref><ref name=Wagner.160>Wagner, p.160</ref> His account of the [[Jallianwalla Bagh Massacre]] was submitted as a witness statement to the official [[Hunter Inquiry Committee Report|Hunter Inquiry]].<ref name=Collett.335>Collett, pp. 335-336</ref>

Before leaving Amritsar to participate in the [[Third Anglo-Afghan War]] and the [[Waziristan campaign (1919–1920)|Waziristan campaign]], Briggs was invited to the Golden Temple and initiated a Sikh.<ref name=CWGC/><ref name=Wagner.206>Wagner, p.206</ref>

==Death and legacy==
On 22 November 1919, Briggs underwent surgery for [[appendicitis]] at [[Bannu]] and died the following day from [[peritonitis]].<ref name=Collett.335/>{{efn|Some sources claim his cause of death as [[typhoid]].<ref name=CWGC/>}} At the time of his death, he had in possession, Dyer's personal notes on the massacre.<ref name=Collett.335/>

Briggs's name was inscribed on the Delhi memorial, [[India Gate]],<ref name=IWM/> and on a plaque at his school.<ref>{{cite web |title=E W C Griffith and F C C Briggs DSO |url=https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/7668 |website=Imperial War Museums |publisher=Imperial War Museum |access-date=22 September 2025 |language=en}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book |title=Report of the Committee Appointed in the Government of India to Investigate the Disturbances in the Punjab, Etc: Amritsar |date=1920 |publisher=H.M. Stationery Office |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5cE1AQAAMAAJ|volume=I-III |language=en}}

==Bibliography==
*{{cite book |last1=Collett |first1=Nigel |title=The Butcher of Amritsar: General Reginald Dyer |date=2007 |publisher=A&C Black|location=London |isbn=1-85285-575-4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XuQC5pgzCw4C|language=en}}
*{{cite book |last1=Furneaux |first1=Rupert |title=Massacre at Amritsar |date=2022 |publisher=Taylor & Francis|location=Abingdon, Oxon |isbn=978-1-000-68932-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U2J6EAAAQBAJ|language=en}}
*{{cite book |last1=Swinson |first1=Arthur |title=Six Minutes to Sunset: The Story of General Dyer and the Amritsar Affair |date=1964 |publisher=Life Span Publishers and Distributors |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uoR0AAAAMAAJ|language=en|isbn=
978-81-039094-3-0}}
*{{cite book |last1=Wagner |first1=Kim A. |title=Amritsar 1919: An Empire of Fear & the Making of a Massacre |date=2019 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-24546-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bziIDwAAQBAJ|language=en}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Briggs, Frederic}}
[[Category:1889 births]]
[[Category:1919 deaths]]
[[Category:Jallianwala Bagh massacre]]
[[Category:People from Pipestone, Minnesota]]
[[Category:People educated at Bedford School]]
[[Category:Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:British military personnel of the Third Anglo-Afghan War]]
[[Category:British military personnel of the Waziristan Campaign]]

Frederic Cecil Currer Briggs - Revision history

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