Thomas Briggs

Admiral Sir Thomas Briggs (1780 – 16 December 1852) was an officer of the British Royal Navy who served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth. Early life and career The only surviving son of Dr. Stephen Briggs, Chief Surgeon at Madras, and Magdalene Pasley, Briggs entered the Navy on 10 September 1791. He first served as a first class volunteer aboard the ship , under the command of his uncle Captain Thomas Pasley. He later followed him into the ship with the rank of midshipman. Between 1793 and 1798 Briggs served under Captain Charles Tyler in the , and , taking part in the operations against Toulon and Corsica in 1793–94, and saw action under Admiral William Hotham in the Battle of Genoa on 14 March and the Battle of Hyères Islands on 13 July 1795. Briggs was promoted to lieutenant on 28 September 1797, and was transferred from Aigle to , flagship of Admiral Earl St. Vincent off Lisbon, and shortly afterwards moved to , flying the flag of Rear-Admiral Thomas Frederick off Cádiz. Commands On 10 July 1799 Briggs was appointed acting-commander of the sloop HMS Salamine, and was officially confirmed in that rank on 30 June 1800, having taken part in the reduction of Genoa earlier. In March 1801 Captain Manley Dixon of at Port Mahon, sent Briggs to Rear-Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren's fleet with the news that Admiral Honoré Ganteaume had sailed from Toulon bound for Egypt. Warren intercepted the French fleet and pursued them back to Toulon. Briggs was then engaged in the expedition to Egypt under Lord Keith and Sir Ralph Abercromby, for which he was awarded the Turkish Gold Medal and the Order of the Crescent, and was promoted to post-captain on 24 July 1801. He commanded , flagship of Sir Richard Bickerton off Alexandria, then on the Mediterranean and Home stations from 1802.