Robert Stephen Briffault

Forenames

Robert Stephen AWMM

Surname

Briffault AWMM

Also known as

• Biffault AWMM
• Robert Briffault De Chancel AWMM

Gender

Male AWMM

Birth

8 Nov 1874 England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975

Post war occupation

• Novelist/Civilian AWMM
• Anthropologist/Civilian AWMM

Next of kin

WW1 Mt Eden AWMM

Relationship status

1896 AWMM Married/WWI AWMM
Married Anna Clarke. Anna died in 1919. AWMM

War

World War I, 1914-1918 AWMM

Campaign

• 1915-1916 AWMM Gallipoli AWMM
• France AWMM

Armed force / branch

Army AWMM

Military service

Royal Army Medical Corps AWMM

Medals and Awards

Military Cross and 2 bars (MC**) AWMM
Dec 1917 AWMM
CAPTAIN R. BRIFFAULT, M.C. Base Records, Wellington, was recently advised that Captain Robert Briffault had been awarded the Military Cross, but in making the announcement the Director stated that as the Defence Department had no record of the officer, and no particulars beyond his name had been cabled, he was unable to notify the next-of-kin. It appears certain, however, that the officer referred to is Captain Robert Briffault, the well-known Auckland surgeon, who secured a commission in the Royal Army Medical Corps about the middle of 1915. Captain Briffault served for a long time at Gallipoli, and took part in the evacuation. After a period of sickness in Egypt he was transferred to England, and has been on service in France without a break for the past eighteen months, his work being almost entirely in advanced dressing stations. Honours Awarded, Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 11, 12 January 1918, Page 6. AWMM

Enlistment

WW1 May 1915 AWMM Medical practitioner AWMM

Embarkation details

WW1 Captain/Military AWMM

Death

11 Dec 1948 AWMM

Obituary

December 11. ROBERT STEPHEN BRIFFAULT, surgeon, anthropologist, novelist; at Hastings, England; of tuberculosis; seventy-two. He began his career as a surgeon, served in the first world war, and later retired to France where he specialized in anthropology, writing a number of books on the subject, the best known being The Making of Humanity and The Mothers. His first novel, Europa, a best seller, appeared in 1935 and was followed by several others, including Fandango and New Life of Mr. Martin (1946). Briffault, who had lived in France for the last seventeen years and had remained there during the Nazi occupation, became ill last November and was removed to a hospital in England, where he died. His fiction was “bitter’’ in attitude and “highly controversial,’’ as were his sociological writings. Ralph Thompson in the New York Times described him as “an author of vast learning, great hate, and bitter skepticism.” Wilson Library Bulletin 1949-02: Vol 23 Iss 6 AWMM

Related Serviceperson

External links

• Military Personnel File
  https://collections.archives.govt.nz/web/arena/search/#/entity/aims-archive/R22422309
  Further Reference
• Honours Awarded, Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 11, 12 January 1918, Page 6.
  https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19180112.2.29
  Further Reference
• Wikipedia Record
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Briffault
  Further Reference
• Gisborne Links: Deceased Author R. S. Briffault. Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22821, 16 December 1948, Page 6.
  https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/GISH19481216.2.86
  Further Reference
• Obituary Wilson Library Bulletin 1949-02: Vol 23 Iss 6
  https://archive.org/details/sim_wilson-library-bulletin_1949-02_23_6/page/410/mode/2up?q=robert+stephen+briffault
  Further Reference
• McCray, P. (2014). Briffault's Passchendaele: Arts, empathy, and the First World War. Rudi Publishing.
  https://archive.org/details/briffaultspassch0000mccr/page/n13/mode/2up
  Further Reference
• New Zealand Institute. Roll of Honour Showing Members of The Institute Who Were on Active Service During The War. Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 53, 1921, Unnumbered Page
  https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/TPRSNZ1921-53.2.6
  Further Reference

References

• Pat Clarkson Medical Practitioner Research Project (January 2014 - March 2022). This project identified Medical Practioners who served in WWI.
• Briffault, R., & Malinowski, B. (1956). Marriage, past and present : a debate between Robert Briffault and Bronislaw Malinowski (A. Montagu, Ed.). P. Sargent.
• Briffault, R. (1919). The making of humanity. London : G. Allen & Unwin Ltd.
• Briffault, R. (1921). Psyche’s lamp; a revaluation of psychological principles as foundation of all thought. G. Allen & Unwin Ltd.; The Macmillan Company.
• Briffault, R. (1935). Breakdown; the collapse of traditional civilisation. London : V. Gollancz.
• Briffault, R. (1935). Europa : the days of ignorance. New York : Grosset & Dunlap.
• Briffault, R. (1937). Europa in limbo. New York : Charles Scribner's Sons.
• Briffault, R. (1938). The decline and fall of the British Empire.New York: Simon and Schuster.
• Briffault, R. (1940). Fandango. New York : C. Scribner’s Sons.
• Briffault, R. (1947). New life of Mr. Martin. New York : C. Scribner’s Sons.
• Briffault, R. (1965). The troubadours (L. F. Koons, Ed.). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
• Briffault, R. (1969). Reasons for anger. Freeport, N.Y., Books for Libraries Press.
• Waite, F. (1919). The New Zealanders at Gallipoli. Auckland, N.Z.: Printed and published under Authority of the New Zealand Government by Whitcombe & Tombs.