David R. Briggs
21st March 1932 - 2021
David was born in Manchester and grew up in Cheshire with his parents and younger sister. He was evacuated in 1940 but an outbreak of meningitis meant he was sent home in time to witness the bombing of Manchester, which he found thrilling, spending most nights over three months in the air-raid shelter in the garden. His prep school was then evacuated to Rhyl in N Wales. He later attended Uppingham School. He spent his National Service in the Royal Artillery, stationed at the old Belsen concentration camp in Germany and exploring on his beloved Triumph Thunderbird motorcycle; he later returned part-time to the armed forces, after graduation, becoming a major in the Territorial Army.
He came up to Queens’ to study Economics, changing to Law for Part II. At Queens’, he was a member of the Christian Union, the Chapel Choir and MagSoc. He met his future wife Elizabeth Marples, a biochemistry undergraduate at Newnham, when they both performed in a MagSoc Christmas Oratorio in the chapel: David took the part of Joseph, Elizabeth sang Mary. David was a member of CU Hare and Hounds, running middle distance competitively for the university. He was the next person to win a mile race at the Iffley Road Stadium, Oxford, after Roger Bannister ran his 4-minute mile.
After graduation he became an articled clerk with Peat Marwick Mitchell (later KPMG) inManchester where (bar one year in Peats’ London office) he remained throughout his career,becoming senior partner and serving a term as President of the Northwest Association of Chartered Accountants.
He was a Christian and lay reader. On his retirement he became very involved in the running of his local church and associated parish and charitable work. He was a keen walker and bird-watcher, loving and knowing the Peak District and Lake District well and he was fascinated by the North West’s industrial history. He had a great sense of humour and loved to entertain. He and Elizabeth, having met through music, carried on singing throughout their lives together, with a local amateur opera group and the church choir. They travelled widely, well into old age, enjoying small cultural cruises as far as Myanmar and up the Amazon. They had three daughters and six grandchildren. He lost Elizabeth in June of 2021 and, heartbroken, passed away himself seven weeks later.
The family has a strong connection to Queens’: David and Elizabeth’s daughter, Polly Briggs (1982), Elizabeth’s stepfather Arthur Bendall (1922), brother Angwin Marples (1951), nephew Richard Marples (1982) and great nephew, Tim Henshaw (2006).
Polly Briggs
16th November 2021
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