Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Five: Captain S. Phillips, Royal Fusiliers, killed in action at the Battle of Loos, 26 September 1915

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 5 clasps, Cape Colony, Tugela Heights, Orange Free State, Relief of Ladysmith, Transvaal (Lieut. S. Phillips. 2/Rl. Fus.); King’s South Africa 1901-02, 2 clasps (Lieut. S. Phillips. Rl. Fusrs.); 1914-15 Star (Capt. S. Phillips R. Fus.); British War and Victory Medals (Capt. S. Phillips) about extremely fine (5) £500-600

Sydeny Phillips was born at West Malling, Kent, in 1879 and was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Royal Fusiliers on 7 May 1898, being promoted Lieutenant on 1 April 1899. He served with the 2nd Battalion in South Africa during the Boer War, and was present at the Relief of Ladysmith, including the action at Colenso; operations on Tugela Heights, 14 to 27 February 1900, and the actions at Pieters Hill, Hussar Hill, and Hlangwani; operations in the Transvaal in May and June 1900, including the action at Rooidam; in Natal, March to June 1900; in Transvaal east of Pretoria, July to November 1900, and in Cape Colony, north of the Orange River, December 1900 until May 1902. Promoted Captain on 13 May 1904, he served with the 12th Battalion during the Great War, going out with them to the Western Front on 1 September 1915, and was with them at the Battle of Loos:
‘It was, however, the 12th Battalion, the last to arrive in France, who were the first to be involved n the Battle of Loos. They had only arrived in France on 1st September, and they reached Beuvry on the 24th by a succession of tiring marches, with sick cases being reported every day up until the 22nd. They had not yet become acclimatised to the realities of War. They had no trench experience. On 25th September the 12th Battalion was ordered to the front line to relieve the Black Watch, who had suffered heavily in the morning attack. There had been no time for preliminary reconnaissance. The troops were quite new to the area, and in the confusion of marching up the battalion became split up. Half the battalion carried out the relief, and so came to a position where the advance had been most bitterly resisted and the gain was still not admitted to be final. From their entry into the trenches until they left them on the morning of the 28th September, the battalion was continually under shell fire. In the mornings and evenings the trenches were attacked. The battalion, while subjected to this unique ordeal, had no rations, no water, no sleep. They had arrived without bombs, yet they beat off every enemy attack until the morning of the 28th, when, after a heavy bombardment, the flanking battalions were attacked and a footing was gained in the trench on the battalion’s right and left. Their position was now hopeless, and, under an attack from both flanks, they were forced to retire. But they went back fighting. Lieutenant Neynor organised four bayonet charges as they retired, and the enemy was driven back. Meanwhile the other part of the battalion, under Major Compton, endeavouring to regain touch, had halted in the dark. When the moon came out they were at once seen, and shelled in the open. They took cover in some trenches, and waited for the dawn. On the morning of the 26th September they were placed by a staff officer in the old British firing line, where they remained until the 28th, when they were relieved. The battalion’s losses as a whole had been very heavy.... Captain Phillips was killed. Of other ranks 20 were killed, 27 wounded, 64 wounded and missing, and 142 missing.’ (Royal Fusiliers in the Great War refers).

Phillips has no known grave, and is commemorated on the Loos Memorial, France. There is a plaque in his memory in his home church in Kent, inscribed ‘Sydney Phillips, Captain 12h Royal Fusiliers, Killed in action at Loos, 26th September 1915 aged 36’.

Note: The Commonwealth War Graves Commission Roll of Honour and the recipient’s Medal Index Card both record his death as 25 October 1915. As the Battalion was not in the front line on that date, and there is no mention of it in the Battalion’s War Diary, it is assumed that this must be an error as all the other evidence points to him being killed the previous month at Loos.

Sold together with the recipient’s riband bar.