Pilot Officer Michael Featherstone Briggs

• Educated at St Piran's-on-the-Hill prep school, Maidenhead, and then Oundle School.
• He joined test flight section of the Fairey Aviation Company in 1939.
• Joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in November 1939.
• Joined No. 234 Squadron on 6 October 1940 and flew with them during the Battle of Britain.
• Briggs transferred to No. 41 Squadron on 4 November 1940 at RAF Hornchurch. The squadron was also known as the '100' Squadron, as they were the first to kill 100 enemy aircraft. The squadron later moved to Catterick, North Yorkshire.
  
  
    

• Returning after a sortie on 2 April 1941 with fog and low cloud, he was unable to see the airfield.
• He attempted to bale out of his aircraft after running out of fuel but he hit rising ground before he could and was killed. He was 20 years old.
• His father was Edward Featherstone Briggs, a pilot in the Royal Naval Air Service during the First World War. He was part of an attack on the Zeppelin works at Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance. During the attack, he was wounded and taken prisoner. Edward was awarded a Distinguished Service Order during his time as a Prisoner of War (PoW).

Photos: Battle of Britain Monument website (bbm.org.uk)