100 Stories > John James Briggs (d. 1914)

Private John James Briggs, of the 2nd Battalion East Lancashire Regiment who died on 30th December 1914, aged 31.

Pte Briggs was born in Blackburn, the son of William and Margaret Briggs. He was working as a collier at Reedley Hallows Pit when he enlisted to serve in the Army. He had completed nine years service in the Army before the war and when hostilities broke out, he immediately applied to rejoin his former regiment.

Pte Briggs was wounded in action at La Bassee in France less than a month after arriving on the front line, and died the following day in hospital in Rouen. His wife and their two-year-old child lived in Gannow Lane at the time of his death. Pte Briggs is buried at Estaires Cemetery in Nord, France, and remembered on the war memorial at All Saints Church, Habergham.

He is the great-uncle of the Councillor Charlie Briggs, who was Mayor of Burnley in 2018 and who led the borough’s commemoration of 100 years since the end of the War.