Near Romsey, Engl being encounter — February 23, 1955

Frederick Briggs, a bricklayer working at Lord Mountbatten's Broadlands estate near Romsey, said he saw a hovering object while cycling to work at about 8:30 a.m. on February 23, 1955. His signed statement described a dull aluminium object shaped like a spinning top, with portholes around its middle. From beside his bicycle he watched a central column descend, carrying an apparently human figure in dark overalls and a close-fitting helmet or hat. Briggs said a bluish light appeared in a porthole and he fell into the snow with his bicycle, temporarily unable to rise. The column retracted and the object climbed rapidly into cloud. Mountbatten and Ron Heath recorded his account and inspected the area, finding no unusual signs that confirmed it. Mountbatten did not claim to have witnessed the object himself. A subsequent story attributed to Briggs describes meeting the figure the next day and making a brief flight to Egypt. It has a different evidential history from the initial signed statement. In a 2004 television documentary, Mountbatten's daughter Lady Pamela Hicks called the incident an invented excuse for arriving late. Her later allegation is material, although it is not a contemporary confession by Briggs. The plate therefore presents the report in explicitly disputed historical context.