Freda Briggs

Briggs was born Freda Akeroyd on 1 December 1930 in Huddersfield, England. She has one brother, nine years her junior. She attended Deighton Council School and Royds Hall School.[1][2]

Briggs worked briefly as an office clerk at Imperial Chemical Industries[1] before joining the London Metropolitan Police, working in child protection.[3] She said in 2007 that she joined the police after seeing an advertisement in a local paper seeking female police recruits, noting that it offered free accommodation and food.[4]

In 1963, Briggs started studying by correspondence, eventually completing a teacher training course at Warwick University.[3][1] She worked as a teacher and social worker in Derbyshire for six years.[5] She completed a graduate degree in education and obtained postgraduate qualifications in psychology and sociology at the University of Sheffield and became a lecturer in child development.[1]

Briggs emigrated to Melbourne in 1975 to become Director of Early Childhood Studies at the State College of Victoria (now part of Monash University).[3] She moved to Adelaide in 1980, where she became dean of the Institute of Early Childhood and Family Studies at the University of South Australia and established a pioneering child protection course.[4] In 2004, the Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, recognised her work by awarding a $10 million endowment for the provision of the National Child Protection Research Centre at the university.[5] In 2005, she was appointed Foundation Chair of Child Development and an emeritus professor, lecturing in sociology, child protection and family studies.[6][5]

Briggs provided assistance to royal commissions and parliamentary inquiries and wrote numerous submissions to state and federal inquiries relating to child protection,[5] including the Mullighan Inquiry in South Australia (2004–2008)[7] and the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. She advised police forces in Australia and New Zealand[8] and was a media consultant on child protection issues relating to TV, movies and computer games.[4] Briggs was considered one of Australia's leading experts about child abuse issues and an outspoken advocate for children's rights internationally.[4][8]

Briggs was a patron for the Adelaide Women's and Children's Hospital paediatric palliative care project and a South Australia ambassador to the prime minister's department on the recognition of women. She also campaigned with success against mandatory retirement from the workforce at 65.[4]

Briggs married Kenneth Briggs in 1952. They became foster carers early in their marriage and had two children of their own.[1]

Briggs died at the Royal Adelaide Hospital on 6 April 2016 at age 85.[4]

Briggs was the inaugural recipient of the Australian Humanitarian Award in 1998.[3] She was named Senior Australian of the Year in 2000 and became an officer of the Order of Australia in 2005.[4] She was also a recipient of the Anzac Fellowship Award, the national Centenary Medal,[4] the Jean Denton Memorial Fellowship and the Creswick Fellowship Award.[9]

In 2009, Briggs received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of Sheffield for outstanding research, publications and contributions to education relating to child abuse and child protection.[2][10]