Briggs, Edward Alfred

Born in Melbourne, Briggs studied at Sydney Grammar School and the University of Sydney, graduating with a BSc in 1912, MSc in 1924 and DSc in 1929 for a thesis entitled "Studies in Australian Athecate Hydroids". In 1932, he married Hazel Jeanne Campbell.

The University of Sydney appointed Briggs to the position of lecturer and demonstrator in Zoology in 1919. Earlier, he had held short-term appointments as demonstrator in Chemistry in 1912, and acting demonstrator in Zoology in 1918. Briggs held positions as acting professor of Zoology in 1928-29 following the death of Professor Harrison, and in 1936 and 1943 during the absence of Professor Dakin. He was promoted to assistant professor in 1933, reader in 1945. In 1950 the University of Sydney appointed Briggs as examiner in Chinese at the Matriculation examination. He retired at the end of 1955.

Between 1912 and 1918, Briggs had been a zoologist with the Australian Museum. From 1916 he also held a part-time position with Sydney Technical College as lecturer in Zoology, work he continued after his appointment to a lectureship at the University until 1932.

Although Briggs's research was in the field of marine zoology, his archives pertain to his expeditions to Papua-New Guinea in the mid-1920s. The objectives of these journeys are given in correspondence retained in Briggs's personnel file (Archives G3/158) viz. “to take cinematograph films of native life, customs, dances, etc., in the Mandated Territory of New Guinea. (2) to make collections of zoological, ethnological, and anthropological material in the Mandated Territory of New Guinea. The films and specimens to be obtained are for use in the Departments of Zoology and Anthropology, the films being intended to form a permanent record of various phases of native life."