Additions will be checked before being published on the website and where possible will be forwarded to the person who submitted the original entries. Your contact details will not be forwarded, but they can send a reply via this messaging system.
please scroll down to send a message
Pte. Arthur Briggs
British Army 9th Btn. Notts and Derby Regiment
from:Brimington
(d.19th Jul 1918)
Arthur Briggs was executed 19/07/1918 age 27 for desertion and is buried in Hersin Communal Cemetery Extension, Hersin, France. He was the son of Henry & Harriet Briggs, 7 Railway View, Lockoford Lane, Birmingham.
Arthur Briggs joined the 9th Bn Sherwood Foresters in 1915 and saw action almost from the start. By 1916 his battalion was caught up in the futile campaign in Gallipoli and it was there that Arthur succumbed to dysentery and was shipped home to convalesce. At the end of that year he was sent back to France, and left behind an 18 year old pregnant girlfriend and a mother who was totally against any marriage to the girl.
Arthur had to wait until the beginning of 1918 to be allowed home on leave to finally get married. He had been granted seven days leave but at the end of the furlough he did not return to his unit, instead he left for Scotland with his wife and child. Whilst Arthur was ‘absent without leave’ in Scotland he was informed by his mother that his youngest brother Sam had been killed in action - aged just 20. Then only two months later his father Henry died on 26th May 1918. It was only a short time later that Arthur was found and arrested in Edinburgh by military police. Apparently he told the arresting officer 'I was going to give myself up tomorrow!’
He was immediately taken back to France to attend his Court Martial. He was defended by an officer from 9th Battalion who was a solicitor in civilian life and Arthur admitted to one of the charges - that he had been an ‘overstayer’ on previous occasions, but he did not admit desertion. But the fact that he had disposed of his kit and his uniform, was damning evidence. And army witness statements seemed to suggest he wasn’t up to much as a soldier. So despite his plea to the contrary the Court Martial found that he was guilty of desertion and he was sentenced to death. The following morning 21801 Private Arthur Briggs aged 27 was taken out and shot - reports say the time was between 3 and 4am at Bracquemont in France on 19th July 1918, and he was buried in Hersin Communal Cemetery Extension.
If Arthur's story is tragic, his mother Harriet's just as terrible - at least four of her sons joined the army - three were killed (son Fred was killed in action on 1st Sept 1918 aged 25) and her husband Henry died at home and all in the space of less than 6 months. Arthur and his brothers are remembered on the small memorial in Christ Church, Stonegravels, Chesterfield
www.brimington-memorial.co.uk
