RN Radio Officer Sidney Briggs's Service

Sidney Briggs worked as a footman at a large house in Bursledon near Southampton and joined the Navy at the start of the war. He trained at an establishment near Skegness and became a radio officer.

He served on HMS Agamemnon, a minelayer and sweeper, and remembered seeing a sailor get his boot caught in the spike of a mine. He went overboard and could not be rescued.

Later he served on a French destroyer in the Mediterranean and crossed the Atlantic to New York on convoy duty. In New York, he and his shipmates were hosted by American families. He also spent time stationed in Malta.