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.

De Garis[1] and in 1922 joined "Jimmy" Larkin's "Australian Aerial Services" (AAS) company, headquartered at Hay, New South Wales.

His father, George Howard Briggs,[3] 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.

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.

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 15 June, after twenty hours of flying solo, Briggs was amazed to receive orders to report to a training squadron (No.

On 2 October Briggs was flying a De Havilland IV bomber when he noticed a Sopwith Camel using him as a practice target.

Briggs recorded that Orfordness was regarded by pilots as "a very hush-hush show where high priests perform aerial magic".

It was pitch black, and cold and miserable after cruising around for an hour or so, Briggs was starting to believe that the Gotha report was a "furphy".

One day (29 March), after repeated invitations, some forenoon drinking and a good lunch, George Powell and Briggs were persuaded to step into the basket of a balloon to get a "still air" view of the country.

After letting rip at his tormentor with some "pure bullocky Australian" language, Briggs found he was enjoying the most wonderful sensation he had ever known.

After a rather heavy landing Briggs vowed, with George Powell, not to go within miles of a kite balloon outfit for a very long time.

The rear cylinder head separated from the engine and the part with the spark plug went straight through the side of the petrol tank, igniting it.

On 18 July he planned to go before a medical board to complain that Britain's cold and wet weather was aggravating his malaria, and suggest that he be posted to a warm climate such as Palestine.

Back in England at the end of January 1919 Briggs conceded he had been foolish not to accept the medical advice, he was still unwell at that time, many weeks after leaving Egypt.

"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.

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.

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.

Nicholls) apologised to Hughes that the only bed he could offer was just a wooden frame with wire netting stretched across it to form a mattress.

After much enquiry it transpired that Jefferson, an RAF pilot, had been sent to the Netherlands to pick up Henrickson, the Dutch food controller, and fly him to London.

The RAF Wing Commander, Colonel Harold Primrose, with Briggs as jockey staggered to the finals to be matched against Carpentier who was mounted on the hefty adjutant of the French outfit.

On the afternoon of Saturday 28 June, Briggs and three companions from the Communication Squadron were flying above the Palace of Versailles waiting for "zero hour".

As 3pm approached they got into "line ahead" formation and, precisely on the hour, dived down and flashed past the windows of the Hall of Mirrors.

The wind was hurricane force, clouds were almost down to ground level, visibility was about a hundred yards and there was heavy driving rain.

Briggs was tempted to land at Marquise aerodrome but, knowing the urgency of his passenger's mission, decided to try climbing above the cloud which was unbroken for 8,000 feet.

Briggs wrote that "I may have for all I know, because I was practically flying blind half-in and half-out of the clouds with the undercarriage wheels scraping the trees and house tops".

In test flights at Glenroy on 3 July Briggs viewed the Boulton and Paul as "a nice little machine with a fair turn of speed", but not rugged enough for the work ahead.

Briggs had no knowledge of Sydney, they had half an hour's fuel left, it was dark and they were in a machine not fitted for night flying.

On 9 August de Garis received a telegram from Admiral Halsey asking him if he would meet the train from Perth at Port Augusta with his aeroplane and pilot, and fly the mail for the Prince of Wales to Sydney.

Briggs told de Garis that the limited time available made this too great a task for their "little bus" (the Sopwith Gnu) and suggested they ask the Prime Minister (Billy Hughes) for the loan of a DH9a machine from the Defence Department.