[1] He attended school in Victoria, but left at age 16 with a job as a cabin-boy on a ship to England.
[3] After the First World War Brigden moved to Tasmania, where he was appointed as a tutor to Workers' Educational Association classes at Queenstown, in the state's west.
[7] In May 1939, then Health Minister Frederick Stewart announced that Brigden would be appointed to devote some of his time as an advisor to the new Department of Supply and Development, but was to retain his Insurance Commission Chairmanship.
When the National Insurance Plan collapsed, he also became Secretary of the Department of Social Services, which lost much of its momentum at the outbreak of World War II.
[6][8] Brigden was diagnosed with dangerous blood pressure in 1947 and invalidated out of the public service that year.