W Bro. Jack Riley Briggs, PPJGW, SLGR.​

18th March 1925 - 15th May 2020

Jack sadly passed to the Grand Lodge above on 15th May, after a lengthy illness.

Our thoughts and prayers are with his daughter Jackie, her husband Norman, grandchildren Rebecca and Victoria and great-grandchildren Mason, Jensen, Larna and Miller. His beloved wife Joyce died in 2004.

He had been a Freemason for 55 years and was initiated into the Lodge of Felicity No. 6001 in 1965. He held many offices in the Lodge before becoming Worshipful Master, for the first time in 1976 and again in 2007.

Jack distinguished himself at Provincial level, his first Provincial appointment was an acting office ProvAGDC, he was then promoted to PPGReg and eventually to PPJGW. He joined Terpsichore Lodge No. 7454, the renowned Dance Teachers Lodge in London, in 1970 and went through the Chair twice in this Lodge too and was promoted to Senior London Grand Rank. After succumbing to a lengthy illness resulting in him becoming wheelchair bound Jack resigned from Freemasonry, upon his retirement the Lodge made him an Honorary Member.

Jack was born in Queensbury where he had lived most of his life, he met his future wife Joyce in 1943 at a dance, they became dance partners and married in 1950. Together they won the British Amateur Championship in 1955 and the British Professional Championship in 1960 and 1961. They acquired their own ballroom school in 1957 and over the years they trained more than 40 British champions, their formation team won the British Championship seven times. Jack and Joyce were team captains on TV’s “Come Dancing”, their team won 6 times and were runners-up 5 times during the 11-years of the shows run. He had been awarded the Carl Allen Award, the Oscars of Dance 4 times, and in 2015 he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Classique de Dance, the main European dance organisation. He had been a Dance Judge for many years and had been Chairman of the Panel of Dance Judges.

Jack achieved an HND in Engineering in 1950 and went on to Imperial College, London, where he received a First-Class BSc. Honours Degree in Aeronautical Engineering. He went on to work on the Canberra Jet project at English Electric before deciding on a change of career and worked as an Engineer for the West Riding County Council and eventually for Bradford City Council where he rose to Deputy Chief Engineer. He retired in 1980 to concentrate on dance full time.

​Jack will be deeply and sadly missed by his family and all his colleagues in the Craft, more particularly the younger members for whom he had a lot of time for.