On April 12, 1882, John Bourchier Briggs (1882-1938) was born into an affluent and influential family in St. Pancras, London. His father, William Edward Briggs (1847-1903) was a Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons and regularly graced the pages of The Illustrated London News. William’s firm, J. and W. E. Briggs operated the Rose Hill Mill in Blackburn, England.

William and his wife Mary Ann Susannah Vicars (1847-1882) had five children. John was the youngest, followed by William Arthur (1879-1958), Margaret Isabel (1877-?), Mary Louise (1876-1859), and Ethel Maude (1873-1923). They all eventually relocated to Canada except for Ethel Maude, who remained in England. In 1906, following the death of his parents, twenty-four-year-old John Briggs boarded an ocean liner in London bound for New York.

Upon his arrival in Canada, John Briggs became one of the first Royal Canadian Navy personnel, and he served aboard the HMCS Niobe for over a year. The vessel returned to Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1915 and served as a depot ship. The 1917 Halifax Explosion, which was the largest man-made, nonnuclear explosion in history, damaged the ship so severely that it was broken up and sold for scrap in the 1920s.

John served in WWI, where he was wounded by shrapnel at Vimy Ridge on April 17, 1917. On September 19 of that same year, John boarded the HMHS Llandovery Castle in Liverpool and returned to Canada. Less than a year later, this Canadian hospital ship was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat. The horrific and controversial incident resulted in the submarine’s officers being charged with war crimes.