Sir Edward Phillips

Sir Edward Phillips
File:Major General Sir Edward Phillips KBE CB DSO MC MB.jpg
Born	(1889-12-19)19 December 1889
Died	14 May 1973(1973-05-14) (aged 83)
Place of birth	Coventry, England
Place of death	Godalming, Surrey, England
Allegiance	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1914–1949
Rank	Major General
Commands held	106th Field Ambulance, CO British Military Hospital, Jhansi 4th Field Ambulance, CO, CB General Hospital Poona Assistant Director of Medical Services, 10th Indian Infantry Division Deputy Director of Medical Services XIII Corps Deputy Director of Medical Services XXX Corps Deputy Director of Medical Services, Eighth Army Deputy Director of Medical Services, Second Army Director of Medical Services, 21st Army Group Director of Medical Services, British Army of the Rhine
Battles/wars	First World War Third Afgan War Second World War North African Campaign Tunisia Campaign Sicily Campaign Italian Campaign Western Front Operation Overlord Invasion of Germany
Awards	Knight Commander Order of the British Empire Distinguished Service Order Companion of the Order of the Bath Military Cross Commander of the Order of St John (Malta) 1914-15 Star British War Medal Victory Medal Indian Army General Service Medal (Afghanistan NWF clasp) General Service Medal 1939-45 Star Africa Star (8th Army) Italy Star France & Germany Star Defence Medal War Medal (WW2) WW1 Croix de Guerre (France) WW2 Croix de Guerre (France) Legion of Honour (France) Legion of Merit (USA) Order of the Crown (Belgium) Mention in Dispatches (10)

Major General Sir Edward Phillips KBE, DSO, CB, MC, MB, late RAMC (19 December 1889 – 14 May 1973) was a British military doctor, who served throughout World War I, saw action in Afghanistan/North West Frontier, the Middle East and was then a leading medical officer in the British Army through World War II in Africa, Italy, D-Day, the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and the establishment of the British Army of the Rhine. He had "arguably the most distinguished field service career of any Army doctor [of the 20th] century".

Early career

Phillips was born in Coventry, England in December 1889, one of two sons. His father Edward Phillips, was a local doctor (and an enthusiast in 1902 of the benefits of cars for doctors.) He want to St Pauls School in London. As a young man Edward wanted to join the army but family pressure pushed him to medicine: he graduated in medicine from Durham University and the London Hospital, LRCP, MRCS. He then joined the Royal Army Medical Corps in July 1914.

Military career

First World War

He joined the army in 1914, initially in reserve and then on Western Front in France as a medical officer from 19 December 1914.
He was promoted to Captain in 1915, then awarded the MC in November 1916. The citation read:
"For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He collected wounded under heavy shell, rifle and machine-gun fire. He set a fine example by his complete disregard of danger."
In January 1918 he was promoted acting Major, and shortly thereafter in August, acting Lt-Colonel "while in charge of a medical unit". The unit in question was 106th Field Ambulance. In March 1919 he reverted to his substantive rank of Captain on being moved to a new post.

He was mentioned in dispatches 4 times including in 1918 and 1919.

He was awarded the French Croix de Guerre in 1919, in addition to the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal. He was also awarded the DSO in the 1919 Birthday Honours as part of a group honoured for "For distinguished service in connection with military operations in France and Flanders".

Between the World Wars

In 1919 he served in the Third Afghan War. He received the Indian Army General Service Medal, with an Afghanistan North West Frontier 1919 clasp. He received the General Service Medal but the record does not specify for which campaign.

Between the wars he served in India and Egypt in routine appointments running ambulances and hospitals.
Promoted Major, 1926; Returned to the UK 1933.
1933/4 - February 1935 Medical Officer for the Equitation School, Sangor (south east of New Delhi), India. An equitation school is a riding school, usually for cavalry troops.
Promoted Lt-Colonel 17th Nov 1935, on taking command of 4th Field Ambulance.
1936-1937 Commanding Officer, British Military Hospital Jhansi (Uttar Pradesh, India).

Second World War

1940 - 1942

The start of the war found him still in the Indian Army, initially running a hospital (1940-1941 Commanding Officer, CB General Hospital Poona, India) and later slightly closer to the action in 1941 when he was appointed Colonel and Assistant Director Medical Services, 10th Indian Infantry Division around its formation. The Division was commanded by Maj-Gen.Bill Slim and at that time it landed in Basra, captured Baghdad and the oilfields of Mosul as part of the Anglo-Iraqi War which was linked to WW2. The division then invaded Syria (in pursuit of Vichy French aeroplanes placed there by the Germans) until June, then invaded Iran as part of the Operation Countenance process to secure the Iranian oilfields from the Axis powers for the Allies and Russians. The division then returned to a static guarding role in Mosul. In September 1941 he was promoted to full Colonel, with seniority backdated to his previous job in 17 November 1938
In April 1942 he rejoined the British Army as Deputy Director Medical Services XIII Corps.
On 3 June 1942 Brigadier Phillips wrote to his mother from XIII Corps HQ, MEF, "...since my last letter I have been a Prisoner of War & escaped! I was very well treated & made my get-a-way in this middle of battle when my captors were otherwise engaged! I am very well & back at work, very busy as you can imagine from the news in the papers. It looks as if the tide has at last turned & you can understand how pleased I am. You know how I like all this excitement & am glad that I'm no longer where I was this time last year....your devoted son, Teddie."
He was appointed a CBE as part of a group of awards "in recognition of gallant and distinguished services in the Middle East during the period May, 1942 to October, 1942". His citation reads
"Brig. PHILLIPS has been DDMS 13 Corps since 8 Apl 42. This period included the battles around TOBRUK beginning 27 May, the subsequent withdrawal to the ALAMEIN line and the fighting in that position. Throughout that period the successful evacuation and treatment of casualties was largely due to the arrangements made and supervised by Brig. PHILLIPS. In this is displayed an exceptionally astute appreciation of the requirements of the varied and difficult situations arising, and his anticipation of events from the medical point of view ensured that wounded were evacuated expeditiously and with the minimum suffering. The energy displayed by Brig. PHILLIPS and his personal influence exercised through frequent visiting of all Corps Medical Units was a great inspiration and encouragement to his subordinates and the source of confidence to those working in close touch with him. He was once taken prisoner but later had success in escaping and carried on with his duties immediately." - although this award was on 16 February 1943, by which time the citation listed him as a Colonel (temp. Brigadier).
This period of the North African Campaign included the retreat to Tobruk, the defeat at Gazala (at the same time as Phillips was briefly a PoW), the Mersa Matruh defeat, and the First Battle of El Alamein, which halted the Axis advance and led to the arrival of General Montgomery who Phillips was to follow for the rest of the war, during Operation Torch, the 2nd Battle of El Alamein, then to Italy, France and Germany.

1943 - VE Day

He was appointed Deputy Director Medical Services XXX Corps, but quickly moved up in February 1943 to be Deputy Director Medical Services of Eighth Army, at the point when it came under the new 18th Army Group to allow co-ordination between British-led allied forces and the Americans. As DDMS, Eighth Army and by then a Brigadier (temporary), under Field Marshal Mongomery, he was involved in the planning and execution of Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily in July 1943 which at that point was the largest amphibious assault ever mounted. He was Mentioned in Dispatches "in recognition of gallant and distinguished services in Sicily" for his work in this period. From July 1943 to 1944 he was Deputy Director Medical Services 3rd Advance Base. In January 1944 General Montgomery returned to the UK to lead 21st Army Group, which had two armies: the British Second Army and 1st Canadian Army. Phillips was appointed Deputy Director Medical Services (DDMS) 2nd Army, and later that year made Major General and Director Medical Services (DMS), 21st Army Group.

The purpose of 21st Army Group was the invasion of Europe, ultimately achieved in Operation Overlord (the invasion of France) in 1944. Phillips was in charge of planning the medical elements of the invasion, which was a huge undertaking and a complex logistical operation both in the planning and execution. The invasion was planned at St Pauls School in London, of which both Phillips and his commanding officer Monty were old boys.

"[A]s D.M.S. 21 Army Group, [Phillips] controlled a service considered by many to have been without parallel". Just as the D-Day landings were the largest amphibian operation in history, so were the medical arrangements: "with the landing brigades came Field Ambulances, Field Dressing Stations, Field Surgical Units and Field Transfusion Units and all breach groups had operational surgery teams in place by H+90 [i.e. 90 minutes after the first attack]. Casualty Clearing Stations and the hospitals arrived from D+2 [i.e. 2 days after the first landing]. The central Casualty Evacuation Post at Courseulles had accommodation for 1,500 casualties and transferred cases to LST and hospital ships to transfer back to the UK. Air transport began on D+7 and by D+14 ...[had] RAF liason, dedicated landing strip and designated hospital....blood was going the other way with blood banks established by D+3... By 26 July there were 12 Casualty Clearing Stations, 19 General Hospitals and 3 Medical Depots. By 26 September there were 17 more General Hospitals and 2 more depots.... Once the Seine was reached a railhead was established and hospital trains instituted.

Phillips developed a reputation for supporting his staff, and including volunteer units such as the US American Field Service Ambulance of whom he said jokingly, when welcoming them in Italy that "he had grown so used to [them] that he almost considered [them] British!" having worked with them in Italy and then in 21st Army Group in France.

In 1945 his department were dealing with huge numbers of refugees, displaced people, and German civilian medical services in a state of collapse. In April 1945 Brigadier Hughes, DDMS 2nd Army, with 11th Armoured Division entered Bergen-Belsen concentration camp to find more than 60,000 emaciated prisoners, more than 13,000 corpses in various stages of decomposition, and a great risk of disease, which Phillips was ultimately responsible for dealing with.
One doctor recalled that "My job [in August 1945] (with one superior officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Hugh Sixsmith) was to run the whole of the captured German military medical service in the British Zone: hundreds of German military hospitals, with about half a million patients, thousands of German medical officers, nurses, and other staff, motor vehicles galore, about 20 hospital trains, and four hospital ships. Among the patients were thousands of sick and wounded prisoners of war, and we had to organise them into trainloads and repatriate them to Italy, Yugoslavia, or whatever was their country of origin..." Having become concerned about how ambulance trains were moving so slowly "...I put in a report to my chief, the director of medical services Major-General Sir Edward Phillips, and he intervened at top level to get a higher priority for these ambulance trains."

Peacetime and Retirement

Various awards for his wartime service followed: In 1945 he was appointed as a Companion of the Bath as part of a group of awards for the actions in North West Europe. On 24 January 1946 he was knighted, appointed KBE. The USA appointed him to the Legion of Merit (Officer), and the Belgians to Commander of the Order of the Crown

Phillips transitioned from DMS 21st Army Group to Director of Medical Services, British Army of Occupation, which became British Army of the Rhine and stationed at the HQ in Badoynhausen. "The medical branch occupied a large convent. Major-General Sir Edward Phillips, (at one time Monty's chief sawbones) was in charge. There were two brigadiers, three full colonels, a lieutenant-colonel and several majors. Apart from a couple of quartermasters, they were all consultants."

The role of DMS BOAR inlcuded helping re-establish German civilian medicine, and introducing German doctors to Penecillin, which was still very new with even the military doctors still unsure as to its best method of use.

He married a much younger doctor, (Captain) Margaret Dunn in her home town of Plymouth, Devon. Margaret had been a civilian doctor in Glasgow but had been called up to the Royal Army Medical Corps and come over to France and later Germany with the military hospitals commanded by Phillips as part of Operation Overlord and subsequent advances.

In January 1949 he was confirmed in his rank of Major-General as a supernumerary after 4 years in that role, but retired on 24 May 1949. By 1955 he was removed from the reserve list

He bought a house in Godalming, Surrey with his wife. They had a daughter and remained there until his death. Phillips died at home of cancer in 1973 having been treated at Cambridge Military Hospital in Aldershot; he was survived by his wife and daughter.

Obituary

His obituary in the British Medical Journal described him thus: "There was nothing indefinite about Eddie Phillips. He was never afraid to take decisions, knew exactly what he wanted, and usually got it. At whatever level he was he worked tirelessly for the good of the field medical services, and finally, as D.M.S. 21 Army Group, controlled a service considered by many to have been without parallel. He would not tolerate inefficiency and appeared to some to be ruthless in dealing with it. This, indeed, he may sometimes have been, but in his dealings with his friends, and these included the whole of his staff with its large numbers of distinguished civilian consultants, he was extraordinarily kind and considerate, going to great lengths, often surreptitiously, to help them. He was ideal to work with, defining his policies and leaving his staff to get on with implementing them and never interfering in detail. He backed them to the hilt with others, whatever he occasionally had to say to them in private, and his vocabulary was full and could be pungent. Eddie Phillips was both a first-class doctor and a first-class soldier, who had the gift of inspiring loyalty in his staff and of returning it. Difficult to get to know, he then became a most charming friend and amusing companion. He had arguably the most distinguished field service career of any Army doctor this century and his name and achievements will live in R.A.M.C. annals."

Portraits

There are photographic portraits of Sir Edward held by the National Portrait Gallery, and a painting and other photographs at the Imperial War Museum