A WAR veteran who helped put Nazis behind bars during the Nuremberg trials has died.
Tom Briggs, 89, a resident at Belong Care Home, on Kennedy Avenue, worked for the British Army’s prosecution service at the end of the Second World War.
As a warrant officer, he spent six months during 1945 gathering evidence about German war criminals – as well as offenders within the army’s own ranks – for the office of the Judge Advocate General.
The grandfather-of-two, who later spent decades in local government, moved to Tytherington in 1974. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in May last year and died peacefully at Belong on September 19.
Son Alan, 59, who lives in Kent, said: "It is a period he didn’t speak about. I think he was upset by the wickedness of some of the things he read in those files.
"He used his legal training and was generally the one who sat two rows back with the piles of evidence. Some of them were Nazi War criminals but none of the big names. "There were people (Allies) who had abused locals in North Africa. One case was somebody who had done a deal with a couple of guys in the RAF to ship a jeep back to the UK one part at a time!"
Tom, who also earned the Africa Star campaign medal for serving in North Africa, joined Cheshire County Council after the war and transferred to the newly formed Macclesfield Borough Council in 1974, serving as deputy town clerk until retirement in 1982.
Alan said: "My memories of dad are of unconditional love and support. He was a very tolerant man with very simple tastes. He was happy at Belong. He never complained."
A former Macclesfield Rotary Club and Royal British Legion president, he cared for his wife of 50 years Dorothy until her death in 1997.
His daughter Mary Pat lives in Lyme Green. Len Johnson, 82, chairman of the Royal British Legion’s Macclesfield branch, said: "He was a pure gentleman from start to finish.
"We have not appointed another president since he stepped down a couple of years ago in tribute to him."
