Alfie Briggs’s biography, net worth, fact, career, awards and life story

Alfred Ernest “Alfie” Briggs (4 February 1888 – 18 March 1950) was a Scottish professional football wing half who played in the Scottish League for Heart of Midlothian. He later scouted for Partick Thistle.

Personal life

Prior to becoming a professional footballer, Briggs worked as a machine builder for the Singer Corporation in Clydebank. He played with the local Junior-grade Clydebank Juniors team and in 1912 represented Scotland at that level; he was signed personally by Hearts manager John McCartney immediately afterwards.

After the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Briggs enlisted as a corporal in McCrae’s Battalion of the Royal Scots. He was badly wounded near La Boisselle on the first day of the Somme, being “hit by four machine gun bullets; one in his leg, another in his left foot and through his arm, another in his right ankle, coming out above the knee and another winging his forehead, knocking him out”. He sought refuge in a shell hole and was returned to an advanced dressing station near Bécourt, where he was expected to die, but made a recovery before being returned to Britain.

Briggs later returned to work as a boilermaker. At the time of his death in 1950, he still had two German bullets lodged in his back.

Career statistics